Anti-corruption crusader names Panama man as drug capo

COLOMBIA’S Customs Director, while announcing his resignation ecause of threats against his family after  his crusade against corruption and tax evasion has fingered a Panama businessman as the kingpin in the drug smuggling trade.

Juan Ricardo Ortega, confirmed His resignation on Friday June 19, and said that he will be leaving the country.in an interview with the radio station Radio Blu he said he would stay in the post he has held since 2010, “about two, three weeks” while the government appoints his successor as head of the Tax and Customs National (DIAN).

“I’m coming back, I guarantee I’ll be back; my problem is a family problem, living with fear when you have babies, becomes unbearable,” he said.

According to Ortega, the source of all corruption is in the drug trade, “a cancer” that hurts the country and “and when there are threats there has been a difficult family situation.”

“Our problem is still the crime of drug trafficking and what is behind all laundering schemes is drug trafficking,” he added.

Last week Ortega had expressed his intention to resign from the DIAN due to the inability to curb tax evasion and smuggling in the country.

“There is a man in Panama that has to do with  textiles” who is in all the literature of organized crime in the region,” he said, and identified the man as Gianni Ibrahim Figali   

He added that that  he is the smuggling capo. “He uses eight names” and the national authorities accept “different names every time the guy wants.”

According to Ortega, the man  identified as Gianni Kaiser Figali in Colombia is known in Panama  as Giannia Figali Figali  “It’s amazing that this person have never been caught,” he lamented.