A former governor and presidential candidate in Mexico serving a federal prison sentence in the U.S. for money laundering was deported by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) this week.
Tomas Jesus Yarrington Ruvalcaba, 68, was removed by ICE on Wednesday and turned over to Mexican authorities, whom he was wanted by, the agency announced on Friday.
Yarrington was the governor of Tamaulipas, Mexico, from 1999 to 2005, and ran as a presidential candidate for Mexico’s Institutional Revolutionary Party in 2005.
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Before he was transferred to ICE custody last summer, he was serving a 108-month sentence in the Federal Correctional Institution Thomson in Illinois after he pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering in 2021.
Yarrington was moved from the Illinois prison to continue immigration hearings, and on Feb. 27, a judge with the Department of Justice’s Executive Office for Immigration Review ordered his removal. The ex-politician waived his right to appeal.
Mexican authorities were awaiting his arrival at the San Ysidro Port of Entry in California to take him into custody for charges he is facing there, which include organized crime and transactions with illegally obtained resources.
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Court documents showed that he accepted bribes from individuals and private companies in Mexico during his time as governor of Tamaulipas to do business with the state, ICE said. He used the bribery money to purchase properties in the United States, but used nominee buyers in an attempt to hide his involvement.
“Yarrington laundered his illegally obtained bribe money in the United States by purchasing beachfront condominiums, large estates, commercial developments, airplanes and luxury vehicles,” ICE said.
Yarrington was caught traveling in Italy in April 2017 under an assumed name and fake passport. He was taken into custody there on a provisional arrest warrant following a May 2013 indictment for various money laundering and drug-related charges.
Italian authorities ultimately authorized his extradition to the U.S., which he fought, and he arrived in the states in April 2018.
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