TAMPA, Florida (AP) — A federal judge sentenced a former Colombian customs worker on Thursday to more than 12 years in prison for taking more than $1 million in bribes in a money laundering conspiracy involving a corrupt U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agent.
Omar Ambuila, 64, pleaded guilty on the of a trial this year that had been expected to shed new light on a misconduct scandal in which more than a dozen U.S. federal agents were quietly disciplined or ousted from their jobs.
Among the would-be witnesses was José Irizarry, a DEA agent now serving a 12-year prison sentence for from money laundering stings to fund a decade’s worth of luxury overseas travel, fine dining, top seats at sporting events and frat house-style debauchery.
Prosecutors said Ambuila deserved a harsh sentence for abusing his trust as one of the highest-ranking officials at the Colombian port of Buenaventura, a major transit point for U.S.-bound cocaine.
At one point, prosecutors said, Ambuila held himself out as a retired soccer player while buying a Lamborghini to conceal “the corrupt nature” of his wealth. Prosecutor Joseph Palazzo told a judge in Tampa federal court that Ambuila had made a series of “particularly obscene purchases” in Miami, including the luxury vehicle and rental waterfront properties.
“This is not about someone from extremely deprived or humble beginnings going down a wayward path reluctantly,” Palazzo said. “This was a calculated crime.”
U.S. District Court Judge Virginia M. Hernandez Covington called the corruption “heartbreaking.”
“This is a person who was a public official engaged in very serious misconduct,” she said.
Prosecutors had previously offered Ambuila a sentence of about three years — or time served dating to his 2021 arrest — followed by deportation to Colombia. The scheme involved more than two dozen bank accounts and 30,000 audio files from wiretapped conversations. But he rejected that earlier.
Ambuila’s attorney, Victor D. Martinez, asked for leniency, arguing Ambuila was less culpable than Irizarry.
“Greed born from association with a corrupt DEA agent shattered Mr. Ambuila’s vision for his future,” Martinez wrote in a court filing. Ambuila, he added, “is deeply repentant and tortures himself every day questioning his conduct and regretting his lack of moral fortitude.”
The Internal Revenue Service and U.S. Department of Homeland Security first suspected Ambuila after his daughter posted photos of herself carrying designer handbags, taking luxury vacations to Paris and driving a $330,000 red Lamborghini.
That lavish lifestyle didn’t match the 20-something University of Miami graduate’s modest income as a social media influencer or that of her father, who earned about $2,000 a month.
A chunk of the funds used to pay for the Lamborghini Huracan Spyder originated in an account controlled by Jhon Marín, whom an IRS criminal investigator described at trial as the Florida-based nephew of a “known contraband smuggler in Colombia.”
An Associated Press investigation previously identified Marin’s uncle as Diego Marín, a longtime DEA informant known to investigators as Colombia’s “Contraband King” for allegedly laundering money through imported appliances and other goods.
Marín has not been charged in the U.S. But prosecutors in Colombia last year requested his extradition from Spain, where he was living, to face criminal charges. His attorneys declined to comment.
In Tampa federal court Thursday, Ambuila apologized to the United States and said he pleaded guilty midway through trial. “I was thinking about my daughter and how it would impact her,” he said. “I was thinking I’d get a sentence of time served.”
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Mustian reported from New Orleans.
