US charges former Mexican governor with money laundering
Date
6/21/2015 5:36:25 AM
(MENAFN- The Journal Of Turkish Weekly) A former Mexican governor has been charged with money laundering and related charges, the U.S. announced Friday.
Eugenio Hernandez Flores, 57, who was governor of Tamaulipas state from 2005 € 2010; and his brother-in-law, Oscar Gomez Guerra; are charged with conspiracy to operate a money laundering system that sought to hide bribes they received from Mexican criminal gangs, including the infamous Los Zetas cartel.
The men, who are considered fugitives with the U.S. issuing warrants for their arrests, were indicted May 27 but the document was usealed Thursday night by federal prosecutors in Texas.
The scheme was operated while Hernandez Flores governed the northern Mexican state that borders Texas, according to U.S. authorities.
The U.S. government is also seeking a personal judgment of $30 million from the two men as well as the seizure of at least three proprieties in the cities of McAllen and Austin, both in Texas.
If found guilty, they each face a sentence of 20 years in prison.
Hernandez Flores is the second former governor of Tamaulipas to be accused by the U.S. in recent years of hiding bribes paid by Mexican drug cartels.
In 2013, the U.S. unsealed an indictment against Tomas Yarrington Ruvalcaba, who served as governor in Tamaulipas from 1999 - 2004.
He currently faces drug trafficking and money laundering charges for supposedly providing assistance to several Mexican cartels operating in the state. His whereabouts are also unknown but U.S. authorities believe he is in Mexico.
Tamaulipas is one of the Mexico's most violent states and the primary base of operations for the Gulf cartel whose security members left in 2010 and formed Los Zetas.
Since then, the two rival cartels have fought to control the strategic drug territory that has led to a war resulting in massive shootouts around the state and thousands fatalities.
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