Tamaulipas officials under investigation by Mexican, U.S. agencies
Federal agencies in Mexico are continuing to scrutinize and investigate public officials in Tamaulipas for allegedly allowing criminal activity, a memo leaked to The Monitor suggests.
The list of about 40 public officials being investigated includes people who worked for Tamaulipas Gov. Eugenio Hernandez Flores. Another Tamaulipas governor, Tomas Yarrington Ruvalcaba, has been named for giving money to the Zetas in a criminal complaint against one of his associates, who is accused by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency of money laundering.
The Zetas is a well-known Mexican criminal organization allegedly involved with the smuggling of drugs and humans as well as kidnapping and extortion. The group also has been blamed for numerous mass graves discovered in Mexico
A memo from the office of Mexican president Felipe Calderon to the director of the Mexican Investigation Agency, or AFI, talks about an ongoing investigation by the office of the attorney general (PGR) in Mexico, into several public officials in Tamaulipas and names them as accomplices of Hernandez Flores, who is under investigation by the attorney general.
The memo, which was signed by Juan Manuel Llera Blanco, was sent on Jan. 24 to AFI Director Vidal Diezhal Ochoa. Llera Blanco is the director of the Federal Service Network, which answers to the Mexican president’s office. The memo also was sent to Mexico’s Interior Secretary Alejandro Poire and Jaime Domingo Lopez Buitron, head of Mexico’s Intelligence service-CISEN.
The memo asks for any information on 39 public officials from the border state of Tamaulipas who might be able to assist in an ongoing PGR investigation into Hernandez Flores, who was the governor of Tamaulipas from 2005 to 2010. The names listed are of mid-level to high ranking officials in various offices within the state.
This week, several raids occurred in government offices and residences in Ciudad Victoria, the capital of Tamaulipas, as federal investigators conducted raids. The information they gathered and why they were investigating has not been made public. Several sources who were not authorized to release information confirmed the raids had taken place but implied they were connected to the investigation of the public officials.
During the last year of his administration, Hernandez Flores made headlines when one of his personal guards, Ismael Marino Ortega, was matched to a U.S. Justice Department wanted poster that identified him as a member of the Zetas and offered a reward for his capture. Marino was taken to Mexico City in the summer of 2010 by the PGR for further investigation. His current legal status is unknown.
Zetas and Tamaulipas Governor
The leaked memo came just days after a criminal complaint was filed against Antonio Pena-Arguelles in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas by the DEA that linked former Gov. Tomas Yarrington Ruvalcaba to the Zetas. Yarrington served as governor from 1999 to 2005.
The documents are from a case against Peña-Arguelles, a man who is described as the link between Yarrington and the Zetas and is charged by the DEA with conspiracy to launder money.
The U.S. court documents contend that between 2000-2012, Peña and his brother, Alfonso, conspired to launder money from the Zetas and the Gulf Cartel, which at the time were allies. Infighting, however, has turned the two organizations into rivals fighting for territory in the northern part of Mexico. Since 2010, Tamaulipas has been the site of a bloody drug war between the Gulf Cartel and the Zetas. The border state and its multiple drug trade routes are at the root of the struggle.
Peña-Arguelles also is accused of being the link from 2000 to 2005 between Yarrington and Zeta bosses Heriberto “El Lazca” Lazcano and Miguel “El40” Treviño Morales. Court records from the complaint in the United States say the Zetas traded protection for money.
The criminal complaint mentions that several millions of dollars were exchanged between Yarrington and the Zetas and mention the recent execution of Alfonso, the brother of Peña-Arguelles. It is alleged that the Zetas thought the Peñas kept a $5 million bribe intended for another high-ranking official. The complaint also alleges that Yarrington had knowledge regarding the murder of Rodolfo Torre Cantu, a Tamaulipas gubernatorial candidate who was killed in June 2010 – allegedly by the Zetas.
On Thursday night, The Monitor received information that Yarrington had been arrested or possibly kidnapped from a high-end condominium at South Padre Island. Federal agencies in the United States didn’t confirm an arrest. However, officials on both sides of the border, who were not authorized to speak publicly, said Yarrington had been detained as part of a joint investigation by the U.S. and Mexico.
