A former Mexican governor who went into hiding after allegedly embezzling a large portion of his state’s budget has now been added to a list of wanted fugitives by the international police agency known as Interpol. The former politician is believed to have been responsible for giving child cancer patients distilled water instead of chemotherapy.
Javier Duarte de Ochoa, 43, is now listed as a wanted fugitive worldwide, sought by the government of Mexico for prosecution in connection with the charges of organized crime and money laundering, the Interpol notice revealed. Duarte is the former governor of the Mexican State of Veracruz, an area hit hard by the actions of the Los Zetas cartel.
As Breitbart Texas reported, Duarte has been linked to an ongoing investigation into the embezzlement of a large portion of the state’s budget. The lack of funds appears to have led to state health officials knowingly passing off distilled water as chemo to children suffering from cancer. Duarte resigned from his post in October and went into hiding as the embezzling investigation became public.
By November, Mexico’s federal government announced that a reward was being offered for information leading to Duarte’s arrest. By December, law enforcement personnel working for a new governor raided a property owned by Duarte, seizing more than $12 million in goods.
While Duarte is now being hunted by Interpol, other Mexican governors who are current fugitives have not been issued a red notice by the international police agency. Former Tamaulipas governor Tomas Yarrington Ruvalcaba is wanted by the U.S. Department of Justice in connection with criminal indictment accusing him of money laundering and drug trafficking conspiracy. As Breitbart Texas has reported in the past, Yarrington has been accused of not only taking bribes from Mexican cartels in exchange for protection, but also of having actively helped the criminal organization negotiate trade deals with government officials in Veracruz.
Federal prosecutors in the U.S. are also still looking for Eugenio Hernandez Flores, another Tamaulipas former governor who has been charged with money laundering. Hernandez is also accused of having taken cartel bribes and laundered the proceeds in Texas.
While Yarrington is also facing charges in Mexico, Hernandez has not been accused of any crime in that country and continues to make public appearances. Breitbart Texas has reported on how Mexican government officials have used public funding to provide state police officers as personal bodyguards for the fugitive governors.
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.
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