Drug Enforcement Administration agents and their informants. Omar Ambuila's surprise guilty plea to a single count of conspiring to commit money laundering came on the second day of his trial in federal court in Tampa, Florida.
Ambuila, 63, was extradited to the U. He faces up to 20 years in prison at an April sentencing. The proceedings had been expected to shed new light on a scandal that resulted in more than a dozen federal agents being disciplined or ousted from their jobs for a range of misconduct during DEA money laundering investigations around the world.
Among the witnesses called to testify by the government was Jose Irizarry , a notoriously corrupt DEA agent serving a lengthy federal prison term for his role in a closely related money laundering conspiracy. The Internal Revenue Service and U. A chunk of the funds used in to pay for the Lamborghini Huracan Spyder originated in an account controlled by Jhon Marin, 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 the smuggler as Diego Marin, a longtime DEA informant known to investigators as Colombia's "Contraband King" for allegedly laundering money through imported appliances and other goods.
A trove of government records obtained by AP describe Marin as a one-time U. For years, DEA agents partied with Marin around the world after purportedly targeting him, the records show, with Marin frequently picking up the bill for dinners and prostitutes.
