Tomas Yarrington Ruvalcaba, ex-governor of Tamaulipas, is accused of utilizing $3.5m in bribes to purchase property within the US.
A former Mexican presidential candidate was sentenced to 9 years in jail on Wednesday, after officers accused him of spending hundreds of thousands of {dollars} in bribes on property purchases in america.
Tomas Yarrington Ruvalcabathe 66-year-old former governor of Tamaulipas in northeast Mexico, obtained the sentence on Wednesday in a US District Courtroom for southern Texas.
Choose Rolando Olvera additionally ordered the ex-governor to give up a condominium he bought in Port Isabel, a coastal metropolis in Texas. He had confronted a most sentence of as much as 20 years.
Yarrington Ruvalcaba had beforehand pleaded responsible in March 2021 to conspiracy to commit cash laundering, admitting to US authorities that he took bribes in trade for enterprise contracts within the state of Tamaulipas in northeast Mexico.
Federal prosecutor Alamdar Hamdani hailed Wednesday’s determination as “bringing a corrupt politician to justice”.
“Even if you’re governor of a Mexican state, we is not going to stand idly by once you use your place to wrongfully fill your pockets and violate the legal guidelines of america,” Hamdani mentioned in a press launch issued by the US Legal professional’s Workplace.
Yarrington Ruvalcaba served as governor from 1999 to 2005, and through that point, he allegedly accepted $3.5 million in bribes from people and firms hoping to forge enterprise offers in his state.
That cash was then laundered into the US by way of luxurious purchases, together with automobiles, airplanes and properties together with estates and beachfront condos, in line with prosecutors.
A kind of luxurious condos, within the Texas resort city of South Padre Island, was forfeited to the federal government in 2012. It was estimated to be value $640,000.
The ex-governor can also be accused of utilizing nominee consumers, or straw males, to masks his participation within the purchases.
As a member of Mexico’s Institutional Revolutionary Get together (PRI), one of many main political forces within the nation, Yarrington Ruvalcaba was a candidate for president in 2005.
He was charged in Could 2013 and arrested whereas touring overseas in Italy in April 2017. Prosecutors allege he was utilizing a pretend title and passport on the time. Italian authorities authorized his extradition to the US the next 12 months.
In its assertion on Wednesday, US authorities mentioned they count on Yarrington Ruvalcaba will face “removing proceedings” to Mexico, the place he additionally faces an investigation.
The state of Tamaulipas serves as the bottom for one in all Mexico’s strongest felony organizations, the Gulf Cartel.
Just lately, 4 People who crossed into Matamoros, Tamaulipas — throughout the border from Brownsville, Texas — had been caught in a shootout and kidnapped To put in armed males. A Mexican girl was additionally killed within the crossfire.
Authorities searched to get well the kidnapping victims and located one alive, one injured and two useless in a picket shack on the sting of the town.
The Scorpions faction of the Gulf Cartel claimed credit score for the kidnapping final Thursday, issuing an apology for violating its dedication to “respecting the life and well-being of the harmless”.
Native media reported that the cartel delivered the 5 members accountable to the authorities, dropping them off with their palms tied on the road.
