A former Mexican border state governor linked to various cartels is headed to Texas where he is facing 11 federal charges including drug trafficking, money laundering, and racketeering.
Tomas Yarrington Ruvalcaba, who served as the governor for Tamaulipas from 1999 to 2005, is wanted by the Southern District of Texas on 11 separate charges including conspiracy under the RICO Act, drug trafficking, money laundering, and others. Yarrington is expected to make his initial appearance at the federal courthouse in Brownsville in the coming days where a magistrate judge will notify him of the charges.
For years, Yarrington lived in Mexico with government-sponsored protection until media and political pressure pushed Mexico’s Attorney General’s Office (PGR) to list him as a fugitive. Yarrington then fled to Italy where he was eventually arrested, following an investigation by U.S. Homeland Security Investigations. As Breitbart Texas reported exclusively, Mexico’s PGR tried to take credit for the arrest and pushed to move Yarrington back to Mexico. Yarrington’s indictment names him as having worked with the Gulf Cartel, Los Zetas and the Beltran Leyva Cartel (BLO) to not only let them operate in Tamaulipas, but also to help Los Zetas and the BLO access to the port of Veracruz.
Yarrington is one of several former Mexican governors outed in U.S. court documents or hearings for allegedly laundering illicit funds and maintaining cartel ties. Yarrington’s successor, Eugenio Hernandez Flores, is also wanted in the Southern District of Texas on money laundering charges. Hernandez and Yarrington lived in Mexico with government bodyguards until a new governor removed the protection details, Breitbart Texas reported. Last year, under orders from the current governor of Tamaulipas the state attorney general, officials pursued Hernandez on state embezzlement charges. Despite interference from Mexico City, the U.S. Department of Justice is working to extradite Hernandez.
Ildefonso Ortiz is an award-winning journalist with Breitbart Texas. He co-founded the Cartel Chronicles project with Brandon Darby and Stephen K. Bannon. You can follow him on Twitter and on Facebook. He can be contacted at Iortiz@breitbart.com.
Brandon Darby is managing director and editor-in-chief of Breitbart Texas. He co-founded the Cartel Chronicles project with Ildefonso Ortiz and Stephen K. Bannon. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook. He can be contacted at bdarby@breitbart.com.
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