Michael Barajas
Add cartel blood money to the list of inputs contributing to San Antonio real estate development. A money laundering probe stretching from Nuevo Laredo to San Antonio tied to one of Mexico's most vicious drug gangs has begun to circle a former well-known Mexican border governor and presidential candidate. In federal court filings last week and earlier this year, U.S. authorities claim Tomás Yarrington Ruvalcaba, governor of Tamaulipas from 1999 to 2005, took millions from Mexican drug cartels in exchange for providing political influence and cover. Although he's not been charged in the U.S., federal prosecutors here have tagged Yarrington in a growing bribery case stretching to major San Antonio real estate holdings.
An indictment filed in Brownsville last week claims Mexican businessman Fernando Alejandro Cano Martinez of Ciudad Victoria took millions in cash from the Gulf Cartel and Los Zetas, once the Gulf Cartel's brutal enforcers who have since turned on their former patrons. The indictment claims Cano and others set up a handful of shell companies and partnerships in San Antonio and elsewhere to launder cash from drug traffickers to high-level elected officials and other political candidates in Tamaulipas.
In 2005, Cano and others formed Premier International Holdings, Ltd and Cantera-Parkway Development Partners of SA. Corporate filings for both list an office building at the corner of Broadway and Sunset, where GMC Cantera Corp., one of several entities tied to Cano, maintains an office. As first reported by the Express-News last week, the Drug Enforcement Administration raided the office following news of Cano's indictment. Cano also set up two other local LLCs, Culebra SA 179 Management and Culebra SA 104 Management, through which he bought up nearly 300 acres of Bexar County development property, federal prosecutors say. Authorities have yet to find and arrest Cano.
City records show Cantera-Parkway filed lobbying disclosure forms as recently as this year. Calls to listed company numbers for comment were either not returned or led to disconnected lines. The law firm listed in city records for Cantera-Parkway, Brown & Ortiz P.C., did not return calls for comment. Virtually all of the companies the feds charge Cano of starting with cartel cash list an address near the Brownsville Country Club in corporate filings.
Tied to Cano's case, in separate civil filings last week, federal prosecutors are trying to seize a South Padre Island condo they claim Yarrington bought with the bribe money, as well as as swath of land in San Antonio. "Yarrington, during and after leaving public office in Mexico, began investing large sums of these illicit funds in real estate in Texas and Mexico using specific front-men and corporate business elites," court documents say. Federal prosecutors have filed to seize 46 acres on La Cantera Parkway here in town, worth some $6.6 million. Though a federal judge has sealed the facts in that case, prosecutors last week issued a statement claiming that property was "obtained with illicit funds by Yarrington, Cano, and others."
Yarrington's Houston-based attorney Joel Androphy said his client hasn't been charged with a crime and denied Yarrington's ties to any of the men indicted, their companies, or property holdings. "They're making claims against the property using his name but it's not his property, it never has been his property," Androphy said.
While Mexico's opposition Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, last week moved to distance itself from Yarrington and possibly even expel him from the party as it heads into the country's July 1 presidential election, Yarrington (who is not speaking to the media) took to his own Twitter feed to dispel rumors he'd been arrested or indicted. "I have not been detained," he wrote last week. "I do not face criminal charges. I'm very calm."
Detailed allegations against Yarrington first popped up in an indictment filed in San Antonio federal court in February. Just as U.S. authorities first began to finger Yarrington in the corruption and money-laundering probe, Mexican authorities began to acknowledge Yarrington was one of three former governors at the heart of a corruption probe there.
On Febuary 8, the feds raided the Stone Oak-area home of Antoino Peña-Arguelles, arresting him on money-laundering charges. An affidavit filed by the DEA in the case lobs serious charges Yarrington's way, calling Peña the conduit between Yarrington and Zetas cartel members Miguel Treviño-Morales, the cartel's No. 2 man, and Zetas leader Heriberto Lazcano, a former military trooper often called "the Executioner."
Starting around 2000, federal prosecutors say, Peña-Arguelles also laundered millions for Osiel Cardenas-Guillen, former Gulf Cartel head now imprisoned in the U.S., in exchange for political cover inside Tamaulipas. "This relationship started with the election of Governor Tomas Yarrington and continued with the replacement of other PRI candidates in government throughout Tamaulipas who could ensure favorable protection for the cartels," the criminal complaint against Peña-Arguelles states.
But by last year Peña-Arguelles' relationship with the Zetas had turned. In late November authorities found the body of Peña-Arguelles' brother dumped at the foot of Nuevo Laredo's Christopher Columbus monument with a banner with a long, rambling screed claiming Peña-Arguelles stole $5 million from the Zetas, and even accused him of ordering the death of Rodolfo Torre Cantu, the 2010 Tamaulipas candidate for governor gunned down days before the election.
According to court records, one confidential informant spilled information to DEA investigators on Peña-Arguelles, including his close dealings with Yarrington, so that he "would be protected from the Zetas who are trying to murder him."
The morning Peña-Arguelles' brother's body was found, he got a text from the Zetas, court records state. The message: Don't be an idiot. Don't steal from us. We know where you're hiding.
"Your brother also told me about the assumed names of the properties that you have with Osiel (Cardenas of the Gulf Cartel) and I know they're in Laredo, Texas and San Antonio," the text read. "There will not be a safe place for you, Mr. Tono, so good luck."
Add cartel blood money to the list of inputs contributing to San Antonio real estate development. A money laundering probe stretching from Nuevo Laredo to San Antonio tied to one of Mexico's most vicious drug gangs has begun to circle a former well-known Mexican border governor and presidential candidate. In federal court filings last week and earlier this year, U.S. authorities claim Tomás Yarrington Ruvalcaba, governor of Tamaulipas from 1999 to 2005, took millions from Mexican drug cartels in exchange for providing political influence and cover. Although he's not been charged in the U.S., federal prosecutors here have tagged Yarrington in a growing bribery case stretching to major San Antonio real estate holdings.
An indictment filed in Brownsville last week claims Mexican businessman Fernando Alejandro Cano Martinez of Ciudad Victoria took millions in cash from the Gulf Cartel and Los Zetas, once the Gulf Cartel's brutal enforcers who have since turned on their former patrons. The indictment claims Cano and others set up a handful of shell companies and partnerships in San Antonio and elsewhere to launder cash from drug traffickers to high-level elected officials and other political candidates in Tamaulipas.
In 2005, Cano and others formed Premier International Holdings, Ltd and Cantera-Parkway Development Partners of SA. Corporate filings for both list an office building at the corner of Broadway and Sunset, where GMC Cantera Corp., one of several entities tied to Cano, maintains an office. As first reported by the Express-News last week, the Drug Enforcement Administration raided the office following news of Cano's indictment. Cano also set up two other local LLCs, Culebra SA 179 Management and Culebra SA 104 Management, through which he bought up nearly 300 acres of Bexar County development property, federal prosecutors say. Authorities have yet to find and arrest Cano.
City records show Cantera-Parkway filed lobbying disclosure forms as recently as this year. Calls to listed company numbers for comment were either not returned or led to disconnected lines. The law firm listed in city records for Cantera-Parkway, Brown & Ortiz P.C., did not return calls for comment. Virtually all of the companies the feds charge Cano of starting with cartel cash list an address near the Brownsville Country Club in corporate filings.
Tied to Cano's case, in separate civil filings last week, federal prosecutors are trying to seize a South Padre Island condo they claim Yarrington bought with the bribe money, as well as as swath of land in San Antonio. "Yarrington, during and after leaving public office in Mexico, began investing large sums of these illicit funds in real estate in Texas and Mexico using specific front-men and corporate business elites," court documents say. Federal prosecutors have filed to seize 46 acres on La Cantera Parkway here in town, worth some $6.6 million. Though a federal judge has sealed the facts in that case, prosecutors last week issued a statement claiming that property was "obtained with illicit funds by Yarrington, Cano, and others."
Yarrington's Houston-based attorney Joel Androphy said his client hasn't been charged with a crime and denied Yarrington's ties to any of the men indicted, their companies, or property holdings. "They're making claims against the property using his name but it's not his property, it never has been his property," Androphy said.
While Mexico's opposition Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, last week moved to distance itself from Yarrington and possibly even expel him from the party as it heads into the country's July 1 presidential election, Yarrington (who is not speaking to the media) took to his own Twitter feed to dispel rumors he'd been arrested or indicted. "I have not been detained," he wrote last week. "I do not face criminal charges. I'm very calm."
Detailed allegations against Yarrington first popped up in an indictment filed in San Antonio federal court in February. Just as U.S. authorities first began to finger Yarrington in the corruption and money-laundering probe, Mexican authorities began to acknowledge Yarrington was one of three former governors at the heart of a corruption probe there.
On Febuary 8, the feds raided the Stone Oak-area home of Antoino Peña-Arguelles, arresting him on money-laundering charges. An affidavit filed by the DEA in the case lobs serious charges Yarrington's way, calling Peña the conduit between Yarrington and Zetas cartel members Miguel Treviño-Morales, the cartel's No. 2 man, and Zetas leader Heriberto Lazcano, a former military trooper often called "the Executioner."
Starting around 2000, federal prosecutors say, Peña-Arguelles also laundered millions for Osiel Cardenas-Guillen, former Gulf Cartel head now imprisoned in the U.S., in exchange for political cover inside Tamaulipas. "This relationship started with the election of Governor Tomas Yarrington and continued with the replacement of other PRI candidates in government throughout Tamaulipas who could ensure favorable protection for the cartels," the criminal complaint against Peña-Arguelles states.
But by last year Peña-Arguelles' relationship with the Zetas had turned. In late November authorities found the body of Peña-Arguelles' brother dumped at the foot of Nuevo Laredo's Christopher Columbus monument with a banner with a long, rambling screed claiming Peña-Arguelles stole $5 million from the Zetas, and even accused him of ordering the death of Rodolfo Torre Cantu, the 2010 Tamaulipas candidate for governor gunned down days before the election.
According to court records, one confidential informant spilled information to DEA investigators on Peña-Arguelles, including his close dealings with Yarrington, so that he "would be protected from the Zetas who are trying to murder him."
The morning Peña-Arguelles' brother's body was found, he got a text from the Zetas, court records state. The message: Don't be an idiot. Don't steal from us. We know where you're hiding.
"Your brother also told me about the assumed names of the properties that you have with Osiel (Cardenas of the Gulf Cartel) and I know they're in Laredo, Texas and San Antonio," the text read. "There will not be a safe place for you, Mr. Tono, so good luck."
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