A former Mexican governor wanted in the U.S. and in Mexico on drug conspiracy and money laundering charges may soon find himself behind bars after a Mexican high court denied his request for an injunction on the warrant for his arrest. A recent ruling by the Second Tribunal in Penal Matters in Mexico sided with a previous ruling by a Mexican federal judge that the arrest warrant against former Tamaulipas Governor Tomas Yarrington was valid, Mexico’s SDP Noticias reported.
That ruling comes almost nine months after Mexico’s Supreme Court refused to review the case against Yarrington. This means he is now out of options in Mexico in regards to fighting his arrest. He will now likely face arrest and extradition to the U.S. While Yarrington has been considered a fugitive in the U.S. since 2013, Mexico had not arrested him because he had been fighting the Mexican arrest warrants in the Mexican court system. Despite the warrants, the former governor has been spotted in various social gatherings in Mexico City and in Tamaulipas where he is believed to be living. It remains unclear if Mexico will actually arrest Yarrington and extradite him.
As previously reported by Breitbart Texas, Yarrington was the governor of Tamaulipas from 1999 to 2005. According to the criminal indictment, during that time he received multiple bribes from the Gulf Cartel and Los Zetas in exchange for giving them free reign across the state.
Using the bribe money, Yarrington had purchased multiple properties in the U.S. including a luxury condo in South Padre Island, a house in McAllen, and a house near San Antonio for his mistress Sindy Chapa, a former professor at Texas State University. Following a lengthy investigation by Homeland Security Investigation, the U.S. Attorney’s Office has seized most of the properties in Texas they believe Yarrington purchased with bribe money.
After his time as governor, Yarrington allegedly worked for Los Zetas and the Beltran Leyva Cartel as their link in order to get them access to the Port of Veracruz, Breitbart Texas had previously published.