Campaign contributions and bribery kept the contraband empire of Colombia’s most important smuggler alive for decades, according to authorities that are seeking his extradition.
President Gustavo Petro said over the weekend that Diego Marin, a.k.a. “Papa Smurf,” sought to contribute COP3 billion ($12.4 million) to his 2022 campaign.
Marin, who was recently detained in Portugal, is “Colombia’s biggest smuggler, which means one of the biggest launderers of drug trafficking dollars in Colombia,” said Petro at an event.
He was saying that for 38 years he had infiltrated the State of Colombia and that he had bought dozens of generals of the Police; dozens of ministers, dozens of directors of the [tax agency] DIAN, of customs, of those who manage the ports of Colombia, of the [customs] police called POLFA.
President Gustavo Petro
According to the former director of tax agency DIAN, Juan Ricardo Ortega, Marin runs Colombia’s largest trade-based money laundering operation, an integral part of the international drugs trade.
In an interview with news publication Cambio, Ortega said that former chief prosecutor Eduardo Montealegre created an entire team to investigate and prosecute the alleged smuggler “13 or 14 years ago.”
This investigation revealed that “about 700 million pesos ($167 thousand) a day in bribes were paid” in the port of Buenaventura alone.
Notwithstanding, the investigation was ended before criminal charges could be brought.
Many of the officials who were suspected of taking bribes continue “are at DIAN, in very important positions.”
Attempts to sack officials suspected of taking bribes were thwarted by the office of former Inspector General Alejandro Ordoñez.
The former director of POLFA, retired General Juan Carlos Buitrago, told media that he was sacked from the National Police in 2020 as he was close to arresting Marin and three of his lieutenants.
Then-President Ivan Duque and former President Andres Pastrana were behind his early retirement, the retired general claimed.
Duque promoted General Tito Yesid Castellanos, another suspected member of Marin’s network, to the National Police’s deputy director.
In recordings revealed by Petro’s anti-corruption adviser, Andres Idarraga, Marin is allegedly heard saying that Duque’s anti-corruption adviser Claudia Gaviria had received money from him.
Prosecutors who have filed charges against Marin in Bogota released a list of 10 allegedly corrupt POLFA division commanders in key cities.
On the list were three lieutenant coronels and seven mayors.
As suggested by the president, this list would only be the tip of the iceberg.
According to newspaper El Espectador, authorities first learned of Marin’s smuggling activities in 1993 when his imports were linked to payments made to the now-defunct Cali Cartel.
