Ex-Tamaulipas Governor Eugenio Hernández Flores Is One Step Closer to US Extradition

"Morogris" for Borderland Beat

Eugenio Hernández Flores is wanted by the US District Court for the Southern District of Texas (Corpus Christi, Texas Division) for money laundering and bribery. 

Mexico's Supreme Court of the Justice (SCJN) rejected a motion issued by former Tamaulipas governor Eugenio Hernandez Flores, who is trying to stop his US extradition. SCJN judge Margarita Rios Farjat said that the extradition request issued by the US government was "constitutional", and moved it to a collegiate court for a final say.

Hernández, who served as the governor of the border state of Tamaulipas from 2005 to 2010, was arrested in Mexico in 2017 on money laundering charges. He is wanted in the US state of Texas for accepting drug payments from Los Zetas drug cartel, in addition to being involved in a complex money laundering that used US banks and real estate transactions. 

“Eugenio Hernández Flores has been identified by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) as receiving bribes from Los Zetas drug cartel, a transnational criminal organization, in order for the cartel to have the unfettered ability to operate in Tamaulipas while Mr. Hernández was governor,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Julie Hampton said during the 2013 plea hearing of Guillermo Flores Cordero, a Mexican businessman who admitted helping elected officials launder money in the US.

As part of the criminal case against Hernandez and his brother-in-law Oscar Gomez Guerra, the U.S government is trying to seize real estate properties in McAllen and Austin, Texas, that they believe were purchased with drug money.

“One of the vehicles or methods for moving the illegal proceeds gained in Mexico by Mr. Eugenio Hernández and his co-conspirators into the U.S. was an elaborate money laundering scheme,” Hampton said. “This scheme was developed by Guillermo Flores Cordero.”

US prosecutors say that Flores-Cordero used shell companies to wire US$30 million into the US for his clients (which included several Mexican political families, including the Hernandez's) and made US$2.5 million in commissions.

Background

These allegations are part of the non-ending saga involving corrupt officials in the violent border state of Tamaulipas, which borders Texas from Laredo to Brownsville.

Earlier this year, former Tamaulipas governor Tomas Yarrington was convicted of money laundering after pleading guilty in a US courtroom. Borderland Beat records show that Yarrington was a key figure in the Gulf Cartel's ascension as one of Mexico's leading criminal groups in the late 1990s and early 2000s. During that era, the cartel was headed by legendary kingpin Osiel Cardenas Guillen.

Although he faced life imprisonment, Yarrington's most serious charges were dropped when he pleaded guilty.

Current Tamaulipas governor Francisco Javier Garcia Cabeza de Vaca is also suspected of money laundering and having old ties to the Gulf Cartel. The US government shared information and intelligence data regarding the governor's illicit financial operations earlier this week. The investigation is still on-going and no arrest warrants have been issued.

Sources: Milenio; La Jornada; MySA (1); (2); Borderland Beat archives