A former governor of the state of Tamaulipas, in northeastern Mexico, has been sentenced to nine years in prison by a court in the United States for corruption, announced the US Department of Justice.
Tomas Yarrington Ruvalcaba, who ruled this violence-ridden border state of Texas from 1999 to 2005, admitted to having accepted 3.5 million dollars in bribes, with which he had bought buildings in the United States, jets private and luxury cars.
The 66-year-old former governor and candidate for the Mexican presidency in 2005, was arrested in April 2017 in Italy where he was traveling with false papers and extradited to the United States the following year. He was convicted by a Texas federal judge and will be deported at the end of his sentence, the Justice Department said.
“Even if you are a governor of a Mexican state, we will not stand idly by if you use your position to improperly line your pockets and violate the laws of the United States,” U.S. Attorney Alamdar Hamdani said.