State prosecutors in the border state of Tamaulipas are asking for federal help in extraditing a cartel-linked former governor currently jailed as part of an embezzlement and money laundering case.
Eugenio Hernandez Flores, the governor of Tamaulipas from 2005 to 2010, currently sits in a prison in Ciudad Victoria, the state capital of the state he once ran. While Hernandes Flores is facing charges in Tamaulipas, he has been listed as a fugitive by the U.S. Department of Justice, Homeland Security Investigations, and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration for several years. The former politician is wanted in the U.S. on several money laundering charges.
While Hernandez lived for years in Mexico with complete impunity, this month, the Tamaulipas Attorney General’s Office arrested him as part of an ongoing public corruption case dealing with the embezzlement of state properties while he was in office, Breitbart Texas reported. Since his arrest, a state judge has ruled that there is enough evidence to move forward in the case and ordered that he not be released.
Most recently, the Tamaulipas Government sent a formal request to Mexico’s Attorney General’s Office asking for help in finding any extradition requests of procedures filed against Hernandez. According to the request, which Breitbart Texas has read, state authorities are inquiring about Interpol notice A-6942/8-2015 connected to the charges in a U.S. federal court. The notice has been on file since 2015, however, the PGR appears to never have acted on it.
The formal request by the Tamaulipas government comes just days after Mexican senators filed a similar motion requesting the PGR’s help and an inquiry into the matter, Breitbart Texas reported.
Hernandez is still considered a member of Mexico’s ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), the same party that Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto belongs to. Tomas Yarrington, another cartel linked former governor is also a member of the PRI, Yarrington is currently in Italy fighting his extradition to Texas where he is wanted on drug trafficking and money laundering charges.
While Hernandez has been a fugitive wanted by U.S. authorities for years, he had managed to live in Mexico with complete impunity until Tamaulipas authorities went after him.
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.
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.
Editor’s Note: Breitbart Texas traveled to the Mexican States of Tamaulipas, Coahuila, and Nuevo León to recruit citizen journalists willing to risk their lives and expose the cartels silencing their communities. The writers would face certain death at the hands of the various cartels that operate in those areas including the Gulf Cartel and Los Zetas if a pseudonym were not used. Breitbart Texas’ Cartel Chronicles are published in both English and in their original Spanish. This article was written by Coahuila’s “J.M. Martinez” and Breitbart Texas’ Ildefonso Ortiz.
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