Tomás Jesús Yarrington Ruvalcaba (, born 7 March 1957) is a Mexican criminal. Formerly a politician affiliated with the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), he held office as the mayor of Matamoros from 1993 to 1995 and as the governor of Tamaulipas from 1999 to 2005. Yarrington sought nomination for the presidential elections for the PRI in 2005.

Yarrington graduated with bachelor's degrees in economics and law from the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Studies and the Autonomous University of Nuevo León respectively. He also received a master's degree in public administration from the University of Southern California. In 1991 he was elected to the Chamber of Deputies for Tamaulipas's 3rd district and from 1993 until 1995 he served as mayor of Matamoros, Tamaulipas. Later on, he headed the local branch of the Institutional Revolutionary Party, joined the cabinet of Manuel Cavazos Lerma as state secretary of finance, and served as governor of Tamaulipas (1999–2004). After leaving the governorship, Yarrington entered the presidential primaries by mid-2005.

He was accused in early 2012 of laundering money for Los Zetas and the Gulf Cartel after a drug cartel member was apprehended and informed the DEA that Yarringnton had ties with the leaders of the drug trafficking organizations. In addition, Yarrington was accused of plotting the assassination of Rodolfo Torre Cantú, the former candidate for state governor in Tamaulipas, along with the Gulf Cartel, which reportedly carried out the ambush that killed the politician. He was arrested in Florence, Italy, on 9 April 2017.

Organized crime allegations

Yarrington's accusations of his criminal activities began in November 2011, when the slain body of a businessman and rancher named Alfonso Peña-Argüelles was publicly displayed in the border city of Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas. On 30 January 2012, the Attorney General of Mexico issued a communiqué ordering the past three governors of Tamaulipas – Manuel Cavazos Lerma, Eugenio Hernández Flores, and Tomás Yarrington – to remain in the country because they were being investigated for possible correlation with the Mexican drug cartels. After a court case in San Antonio, Texas, the United States Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) accused Yarrington of laundering money for Los Zetas and the Gulf Cartel from 1999 to 2004, his time as governor. This information was obtained after Antonio Peña-Argüelles, an alleged high-ranking drug cartel member, was arrested and claimed that Yarrington had "direct personal relationship with Zeta leaders."

In addition, Yarrington was accused of plotting the assassination of Rodolfo Torre Cantú, the former candidate for governor in Tamaulipas's 2010 elections; the ambushed that killed Torre Cantú was allegedly carried out by Jorge Eduardo Costilla Sánchez, the supreme leader of the Gulf cartel.

According to the DEA's protected witness, Torre Cantú was assassinated because he affected the interests of a construction company that the Gulf cartel was sponsoring. Moreover, Excélsior notes that Torre Cantú was also killed because he did not have a good relationship with Yarrington and did not guarantee agreements with the cartels. according to the reports of Animal Político, Osiel asked Costilla Sánchez and Heriberto Lazcano Lazcano, his associates, to send millions of dollars to Yarrington's collaborators, with hopes of escaping from prison if Yarrington became president, just like Joaquín Guzmán Loera (a.k.a. El Chapo). In a civil forfeiture lawsuit filed in Corpus Christi on 12 May 2012, Yarrington is said to face forfeiture of a condominium he owns in South Padre Island that federal authorities believe he purchased with "illegally obtained funds" and under another name to avoid detection by law enforcement. Court records say that Yarrington used $450,000 from the Gulf cartel to pay the 14th floor unit. The indictment also alleged that a Mexican businessman known as Fernando Alejandro Cano Martínez used several corporate entities in Texas to launder money by the Gulf Cartel to pay top politicians in Tamaulipas. The U.S. authorities are trying to confiscate Yarrington's condominium in South Padre Island and a 46-acre property in San Antonio, Texas. All these properties are believed to have been bought by Yarrington with drug proceeds from the Gulf Cartel, a criminal organization headquartered in the city of Matamoros, Tamaulipas (where he served as mayor).

Nonetheless, Yarrington has publicly acknowledged that he is the subject of the investigation but denied any links to organized crime. Yarrington's lawyer, in addition, said that the ex-governor has no connection with organized crime and that the accusations against him are attempts made by other people in federal investigations to "improve their own situations." Yarrington has not been officially charged with any crimes, but U.S. federal prosecutors filed two civil forfeiture cases against him, seeking to seize more than $7 million U.S. dollars in properties.

Yarrington's associates

Fernando Alejandro Cano Martínez, a businessman from Ciudad Victoria, Tamaulipas, and an alleged financial operator of the Gulf cartel, was indicted for conspiracy to launder money and commit bank fraud on 22 May 2012. The indictment charges Cano Martínez with using a number of corporations in Texas to launder money for the Gulf Cartel, a drug trafficking organization in Mexico, to then using millions of dollars as bribes for politicians in Tamaulipas. Prosecutors are seeking a $40 million forfeiture from Cano-Martínez's assets.

On 24 May 2012, the Mexican military raided the house and workplace of the businessman Napoleón Rodríguez de la Garza in Matamoros, Tamaulipas. Rodríguez was the treasurer of Yarrington during his time as mayor of Matamoros and the straw man purchaser of the condominium in South Padre Island, Texas. Rodríguez was taken to SIEDO for further questioning; he was detained by the PGR on 28 May 2012 and will remain under custody for 40 days. Nonetheless, he accepted to be a straw purchaser for Yarrington. The U.S. authorities began the investigation of other functionaries that worked for the ex-governor of Tamaulipas and close associate of Yarrington, Eugenio Hernández Flores. According to government reports, a man known as Alberto Berlanga Bolado – owner of the GMC, SA de CV and former functionary during Hernandez's time in office, was linked to money laundering and bribes from the Gulf cartel on 26 May 2012.

In another case in the city of Monterrey, Nuevo León, on 29 May 2012, the authorities detained Eduardo Rodríguez Berlanga (La Conga), the owner of Constructora Janambres SA de CV and alleged money launderer and straw purchaser of Yarrington. He reportedly owns several ranches with over 4,940 acres (2,000 hectares), including one with an airstrip. Rodríguez de la Garza's property was raided along with Yarrington's home in the city of Matamoros. In another incident early in the morning on 30 May 2012 in the border city of Reynosa, Tamaulipas, several banners appeared throughout the city blaming Francisco García Cabeza de Vaca, the former mayor of Reynosa and current candidate for the Senate, for being one of Yarrington's associates. The banner linked Cabeza de Vaca with other people who are investigated by the U.S. authorities for money laundering, including Manuel Bribiesca and Antonio Peña Argüelles. The National Action Party (PAN), however, claimed that the banners were put up by the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) because Cabeza de Vaca (the PAN candidate for the Senate) is leading the elections and above Manuel Cavazos Lerma, a member of the PRI who is also running for a seat in the Senate too. Below is the statement issued by the PRI, translated from Spanish:

The Los Angeles Times states that these drug trafficking charges may "summon the ghosts" of the PRI's corrupt and dark past. It may remind the Mexican voters of the grafts that marked the party's rule before it was tossed from the presidency in the year 2000 after seven decades of near-absolute regime control. Mexico's vast criminal underworld and illegal drug trafficking industry took hold during the reign of the PRI, often with the help of corrupt officials.

SIEDO investigations

According to the investigations of the SIEDO, Yarrington received more than US$8.5 million from the Gulf Cartel and the Juárez Cartel in eleven separate payments to finance his campaign for governor of Tamaulipas in 1998.

Arrest and conviction

A Mexican judge ordered Yarrington's arrest on 29 August 2012; the Interpol was searching his whereabouts in over 150 countries. He was finally arrested in Florence, Italy, on 9 April 2017.

Yarrington pled guilty to money laundering and accepting bribes as governor on 26 March 2021. Ten other charges, related to drug trafficking, were dismissed. Yarrington can be sentenced to between eight and eleven years in prison, and his condominium in South Padre Island, Texas, was seized.

Personal life

Yarrington was born in Matamoros, Tamaulipas. He is married to María Antonieta Morales and has two children: María Antonieta and Tomás Antonio. In addition, during Yarrington's time as mayor of Matamoros, Tamaulipas, he developed a close friendship with George W. Bush, former governor of Texas and ex-president of the United States.

References

  • Official site
  • International Arrest Warrant Issued for Mexico Governor — InSight Crime