There, Omar Ambuila, the former DIAN cargo chief in Buenaventura, received the worst news: his extradition to the US to answer for US 1.6 million.
Until a few weeks ago, Omar Ambuila’s trust in God remained intact. He was convinced that at any moment he would leave the extraditable pavilion, a hellish place, that the 18-year-old Chandon and McCalans who circulate almost freely through its corridors, cannot attenuate the stench exhaled by the latrines built into tiny rooms 3×3. Ambuila came to know freedom at the end of 2020. He returned to Cali where he once more attended ceremonies at the Christian Peace Community until April 23, 2021 when he was recaptured by order of the United States. For a moment he thought that he would have a normal life once more, attending church with his wife Elba Chará, living in the same condominium in the south of the city. Being able to offer you, why not? The ostentatious gifts that he once gave to his trusted pastor, including a luxury van. But all this came undone like tears in the rain.
Omar Ambuila hates journalists. In the Pas A pavilion for extraditables, he tries to go unnoticed. He no longer dresses in his luxurious and expensive shirts, he does so with Nike sweatshirts that make him look like one of the Sopranos characters. Ambuila has no friends, when the noisy parties are held, with picos expelling vallenato and reggaeton, he locks himself in his cell. Until a few weeks ago he did it with the full confidence that luck would change. But, at the beginning of February 2023, all this was undone.
The Office of the Attorney General of the Nation gave the green light to the extradition of the DIAN cargo chief in Buenaventura. He will now have to answer in the United States for money laundering. A request for an arrest warrant for extradition purposes arrived at the office of Prosecutor Francisco Barbosa for having laundered close to 1.3 million dollars. The order will be executed in the next few days.
His past ended up catching up with him.
Omar had entered the Directorate of National Taxes and Customs in 1990 when he was 31 years old. His position was analyst V but, over time and due to his perseverance, he rose to become Head of Internal Control in the town. He earned close to six million pesos a month and the only luxuries he indulged in at the port was having a red wine while he watched matches of the Colombian National Team. He sometimes wore designer clothes but this did not attract anyone’s attention. Of course, what he began to make noise were the publications on social networks that his daughter Jenny made of him.
In 2016, following a brief stay at Harvard University, the young woman settled in Miami and there she did throw the house out the window through her Facebook. In March of that year, she bought a red Lamborghini that cost more than 1,000 million pesos, a budget that was completely out of Omar’s salary. In addition to the Lamborghini, the young woman had a special white Porsche to go only to the university. She was also a regular at electronic parties whose entry might cost more than four thousand dollars.
To these luxuries were added a cell phone with a gold casing, shoes, handbags, and jackets that were incomprehensible for the daughter of a mid-ranking DIAN official. Meanwhile, the Prosecutor’s Office followed Jenny’s steps on social networks. For three years she was collecting information. Omar had a presentiment of it and, therefore, in this call, you can see how he tells his wife regarding the concern that ostentation generated in social networks.
Then, when investigating the official, it became clear that he had allowed the systematic entry of merchandise into the United States through the port of Buenaventura in exchange for million-dollar dividends. Her assets had grown inordinately between 2013 and 2017. Ambuila hid the money by making front companies or sending money to her daughter. When the Prosecutor’s Office asked Jenny where she had gotten so much money, she said that it was all because she was an influential youtuber and that clothing brands paid her to promote her products. Something that was completely false.
Omar’s wife was released in 2020 as was Jenny. The one who paid for the family’s sins was the former official, who will try to cling to the only thing that allows him to get up every morning from his tiny cell: his faith in God.
