CTI agents supported by men from the 15th military police battalion carrying rifles and short weapons arrived last Tuesday, December 12, at a luxurious apartment, located in the Monterrey building, north of Bogotá.
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It was 6:50 in the morning and according to the administration, they had an arrest warrant against the owner of apartment 601; a renowned lawyer who worked several years ago in the Prosecutor’s Office and who ended up demobilized from the Centauros block of the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia.
Daniel Rendón, alias Don Mario.
Milton Díaz / EL TIEMPO Archive
Her name is Consuelo Ibeth Parra Velandia, originally from Sogamoso (Boyacá) and known in the underworld world as the seasoned agent of bloodthirsty paramilitary leaders who ended up founding the criminal machine known as the Autodefensas Gaitanistas de Colombia or ‘Gulf clan’.
Among Parra’s clients, 44 years old, range from the powerful former boss Diego Fernando Murillo Bejarano, alias Don Berna, to the former paramilitary Daniel Rendón Herrera, alias Don Mario, both convicted in the United States of drug trafficking and related crimes.
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Parra appears visiting them in prisons in Colombia and the United States and, after losing her visa, she became the local advisor and attorney for the heirs of that criminal machine: Dairo Antonio Úsuga, alias Otoniel, extradited in May 2022, and Carlos Antonio Moreno Tuberquia, alias Nicolás, extradited in March 2022.
Otoniel, captured on Saturday, October 23, 2021.
Rice growers and investments
Jairo Santiago Sedan Vidales was captured in the middle of the Briks operation.
Provided by authorities
In parallel, the lawyer began to appear as a partner and director of several companies with juicy assets and activities ranging from real estate investments to the acquisition of assets.
Even in records of the Colombian Association of Zebú Cattle Breeders (Asocebú) it appears linked to the La Consulta farm, located in the Pellizco village, in Orocué (Casanare), the same area of influence of the Centauros block in which he was active.
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EL TIEMPO investigated and established that for the Prosecutor’s Office, Consuelo Parra Velandia, has been combining her legal work with that of the ‘financial brain’ of the ‘Gulf clan’: “She has been in charge of instructing and making decisions regarding investment and administration of the assets and resources of that illegal organization in an amount exceeding 300,000 million pesos.”
For this reason, she is being investigated for money laundering, illicit enrichment of individuals and conspiracy to commit a crime, within a process that involves 7 more people, including a member of a renowned family of rice farmers, partners of distributors with an international seal: Jairo Santiago Sedan Vidales.
The lawyer Consuelo Ibeth Parra Velandia.
Miguel Ángel Morales, criminal lawyer.
Mario Iguaran, Associate Lawyers.
According to the investigation, Consuelo Parra injected more than 1.3 billion pesos of capital into Fishcorp SAS, a company dedicated to aquaculture in which the young businessman Sedan Vidales appears.
And he would also have made a loan to the company for 3,000 million pesos to acquire land and expand the production plant.
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According to the defense of Sedan Vidales, in the hands of criminal lawyer Miguel Ángel Morales, his client is a third party in good faith: “Mrs. Parra arrived just as other investors arrived to a project, she presented herself as a lawyer and my client did not know her past. . The money she invested is in two lots that were acquired for that project, it did not enter her accounts.”
The owner of Bricks
Carlos Antonio Moreno Tuberquia.
Courtesy Police and EL TIEMPO
The lawyer’s millionaire investments – says the Prosecutor’s Office – were revealed by a report from the Financial Information and Analysis Unit (UIAF) on a man identified as Wilson Muñoz Ávila.
In documents held by EL TIEMPO, he appears as the head of the company Ingeniería Colombiana Incol SAS, which was previously called Bricks Constructions & Proyectos real estate SAS.
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This company appears to be purchasing land for around 6.7 billion pesos. However, the Prosecutor’s Office investigation established that Muñoz Ávila, also captured, is actually dedicated to the retail sale of food, beverages and hygiene items.
“His income does not support the acquisition of the properties registered in his name and that of the company Incol, this is how it is established that Muñoz Ávila would be related to the acquisition and concealment of assets of illicit origin, taking into account that it has been determined the direct and indirect link with Carlos Antonio Moreno Tuberquia, alias Nicolás,” indicates a confidential report to which EL TIEMPO had access.
Consuelo Ibeth Parra was part of the Centauros bloc of the self-defense groups.
Provided by authorities
And he adds that after the blocking of the financial products of the company Incol due to the report of suspicious operations, Muñoz received instructions from Consuelo Parra to hand over the administration of all the properties to Andrea Catalina Ballestas and Sergio René Pedraza, both captured.
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Because the old Bricks company was the origin of this investigation, that was the name of the operation that culminated in the 8 arrests and several raids in Bogotá, Chía and Cajicá.
Front man network
According to the Prosecutor’s Office, the network used front companies to hide the money.
Provided by authorities
The Prosecutor’s Office’s hypothesis is that the money resulting from the illegal conduct of alias Nicolás ended up being laundered and hidden through a network of front companies, among which are Anca Human Resources SAS, dedicated to the purchase and sale of real estate, whose legal representative is Andrea Ballestas; Asesores y Consultores PV SAS, of which lawyer Parra is the sole shareholder, and Inversiones y Consultores Parra e Hijos, which has assets of more than one billion pesos.
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Additionally, in the commercial establishments Autoservicio Punto Rojo, Joka Store, Autoservicio Merka Jac and JS Luciana. The latter, dedicated to the trade of constriction materials, managed to register assets of 3 billion pesos.
The Prosecutor’s Office’s hypothesis is that the money resulting from the illegal conduct of alias Nicolás ended up being laundered and hidden through a network of front companies.
This case is of such a level that well-known lawyers took on the defense of Consuelo Parra and the others captured.
The former director of the Specialized National Prosecutor’s Office and now a litigator, Iván Lombana, was the one who assisted lawyer Parra at the time of her capture. And now, her defense and those of Andrea Catalina Ballestas and Sergio René Pedraza, are in the hands of Iván Cancino. In fact, the latter and the other attorneys indicated that the Prosecutor’s Office took more than 36 hours to legalize the arrests and that is why all the defendants were released last Thursday.
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However, they remain linked to the investigation and EL TIEMPO established that there are interceptions and accounting studies with which the Prosecutor’s Office will seek to convict them, although their attorneys insist that they are innocent.
The defense of Consuelo Parra speaks
All those involved in this case assure that their conduct is in accordance with the law and that they will distort the accusations of the Prosecutor’s Office.
“In what the Prosecutor’s Office has uncovered so far, it is not true that there is any front company, all of them were executing their corporate purpose and in none of them has money been laundered, they are illicit operations in the purchase and sale of real estate, among others,” said the criminal lawyer. Iván Cancino, attorney for Consuelo Parra.
(See all the articles from the EL TIEMPO Investigative Unit here)
And he added: “The only thing that the Prosecutor’s Office is pointing out is that Dr. Consuelo Parra has worked for former paramilitaries and former bosses.” She also said: “She has earned her fees and works as a partner in some companies, until now the Prosecutor’s Office has not documented the illicit origin of any company or any movement of money.”
INVESTIGATIVE UNIT
u.investigativa@eltiempo.com
@UinvestigativeET
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2023-12-17 17:28:09
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