US Accuses Ex-Governor of Mexico's Tamaulipas State of Laundering Cartel Cash Tim Johnson - McClatchy
go to original December 3, 2013

MEXICO CITY — The former governor of Mexico’s Tamaulipas state invested millions of dollars in drug sale proceeds in real estate across southern and central Texas, the U.S. government charged in an indictment unsealed Monday.

The allegations against Tomas Yarrington, who governed Tamaulipas from 1999 to 2004, marked the latest attempt by U.S. prosecutors to prove that organized crime has penetrated deeply into Mexican politics at the state level. Tamaulipas borders Texas.

According to the indictment, Yarrington received “millions of dollars” in payoffs from the Gulf Cartel, a major drug trafficking group based in Matamoros, which lies across the Rio Grande from Brownsville, Texas, where the indictment was returned in May. There was no explanation for why the 53-page indictment was kept secret until Monday.

The payments began in 1998 when Yarrington was a candidate for governor and continued throughout his six-year term, the indictment alleges. Tamaulipas state police working for the Gulf Cartel delivered the first of the bribes while Yarrington was running for governor, it says.

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