Ex-Mexican governor's long flight from justice ends
Ex-Mexican governor's long flight from justice ends
Mark Stevenson, Associated Press Updated 3:47 pm, Monday, April 10, 2017
MEXICO CITY (AP) — The arrest of an ex-governor of the Mexican border state of Tamaulipas caps a five-year, seemingly desultory search for the ruling-party politician accused of organized crime and money laundering.
It may have been one of the least serious searches in history. Analysts say the government was loath to arrest one of its own, a man who both reflected badly on the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, and who may have held sensitive information on other corrupt officials.
U.S. prosecutors have publicly alleged since 2012 that Tomas Yarrington accepted millions of dollars in drug cartel bribes and invested it in Texas real estate. But Mexico didn't offer a reward for his capture until last November.
The current Tamaulipas governor, Francisco Garcia Cabeza de Vaca, said that up until last year, Yarrington — who left office in 2005, and faced charges since 2012 — still had a government-provided bodyguard assigned to him. The farcical nature of a policeman assigned to guard him while he was on the lam ended only because Garcia Cabeza de Vaca won the 2016 elections and belongs to the opposition National Action Party, or PAN, the party said in a statement Monday.
More:
http://www.chron.com/news/crime/article/Ex-Mexican-governor-s-long-flight-from-justice-11063651.php
