HomeNewsBriefColombia's Tax Agency Boss Leaves Country Amid Death Threats
BRIEF

Colombia's Tax Agency Boss Leaves Country Amid Death Threats

COLOMBIA / 22 JUL 2014 BY KYRA GURNEY EN

The director of Colombia's tax and customs agency has resigned and left the country after stating he had received death threats from a shadowy businessman with alleged ties to Pablo Escobar's Medellin Cartel and a criminal history spanning at least two decades.

In an interview with Blu Radio on June 20, several weeks before he left the country, the Director of Colombia's National Directorate of Taxes and Customs (DIAN), Juan Ricardo Ortega, stated that the man who threatened him runs a textile contraband network in Panama and Colombia. He added that the individual previously laundered money for Pablo Escobar's Medellin Cartel and worked with the Norte Del Valle Cartel. Ortega said the man uses several identities, including the names Jean Ibrahim Figali and Jean Kaiser Fhegali.

According to Semana magazine, former Panamanian president Ricardo Martinelli has received death threats from the same individual.

In spite of his alleged criminal history, there are currently no arrest warrants out for Figali. Asked by Blu Radio who was protecting Figali from prosecution, Ortega responded, "I think he is protected on an international level."

InSight Crime Analysis

Semana Magazine has identified Jean Figali as a man who went by the name of John Nasser during the era of the Medellin Cartel. A former DEA agent who infiltrated the cartel, Robert Mazur, wrote in a book that Figali was a major player in the criminal underworld and had the protection of law enforcement agents and politicians.

In 1992, Spanish authorities issued an international arrest warrant for two Colombian drug traffickers, including a man identified as "Jon Nasser," who had allegedly set up a drug trafficking network in Spain for the Bogota Cartel. Four years later, in an El Tiempo article, Nasser was identified as one of the leaders of the Coast Cartel, a criminal organization that operated smuggling networks on Colombia's Caribbean coast.

SEE ALSO: Coverage of Panama

Figali appears to have had business operations in Panama since at least the early 1990s. He allegedly had close ties to former Panamanian president Mireya Moscoso, who gave him a concession for the commercial exploitation of a zone of the Panama Canal.

Figali was also mentioned in a 2007 Wikileaks cable from the US Embassy in Panama, which identified him as "an established money launderer" who had worked for Pablo Escobar. Figali was accused of money laundering in 2010, but acquitted in 2011.

Although Ortega did not state Figali's reasons for targeting him, the former director of the DIAN made a point of combating contraband and money laundering during his tenure, which may have brought him into conflict with Figali's interests. 

share icon icon icon

Was this content helpful?

We want to sustain Latin America’s largest organized crime database, but in order to do so, we need resources.

DONATE

What are your thoughts? Click here to send InSight Crime your comments.

We encourage readers to copy and distribute our work for non-commercial purposes, with attribution to InSight Crime in the byline and links to the original at both the top and bottom of the article. Check the Creative Commons website for more details of how to share our work, and please send us an email if you use an article.

Was this content helpful?

We want to sustain Latin America’s largest organized crime database, but in order to do so, we need resources.

DONATE

Related Content

AUC / 8 SEP 2021

As gold prices have skyrocketed, criminal groups once solely dedicated to the trafficking of drugs and arms have moved into…

COLOMBIA / 29 MAR 2022

A record cocaine seizure off the coast of Colombia’s San Andres is the latest in a string of million-dollar drug…

COCAINE / 9 SEP 2021

A gang, which modified aircraft to be able to carry cocaine from Colombia to the United States and Mexico, has…

About InSight Crime

THE ORGANIZATION

Venezuela Coverage Continues to be Highlighted

3 MAR 2023

This week, InSight Crime co-director Jeremy McDermott was the featured guest on the Americas Quarterly podcast, where he provided an expert overview of the changing dynamics…

THE ORGANIZATION

Venezuela's Organized Crime Top 10 Attracts Attention

24 FEB 2023

Last week, InSight Crime published its ranking of Venezuela’s ten organized crime groups to accompany the launch of the Venezuela Organized Crime Observatory. Read…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime on El País Podcast

10 FEB 2023

This week, InSight Crime co-founder, Jeremy McDermott, was among experts featured in an El País podcast on the progress of Colombia’s nascent peace process.

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Interviewed by Associated Press

3 FEB 2023

This week, InSight Crime’s Co-director Jeremy McDermott was interviewed by the Associated Press on developments in Haiti as the country continues its prolonged collapse. McDermott’s words were republished around the world,…

THE ORGANIZATION

Escaping Barrio 18

27 JAN 2023

Last week, InSight Crime published an investigation charting the story of Desafío, a 28-year-old Barrio 18 gang member who is desperate to escape gang life. But there’s one problem: he’s…