Former Mexican governor who conspired with Gulf Cartel has been released from a U.S. prison

Tomás Yarrington, the former governor of the Mexican state of Tamaulipas, has been released from the U.S. prison in which he had been incarcerated since 2018 on money laundering charges.

According to a record from the U.S. Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP), Yarrington was released from the prison on July 3, though his release was scheduled for July 9 after his defense requested a sentence reduction. It is not specified whether he was released on parole or under supervised release, nor if he is under the custody of another criminal justice or correctional system.

Yarrington, along with businessman Fernando Alejandro Cano, was accused by a U.S. Prosecutor's Office of receiving bribes from the Gulf Cartel and Los Zetas. There is a possibility that he may now cooperate with U.S. justice, but no information confirms his current status.

Yarrington was arrested in Florence, Italy, in April 2017. He was extradited to the United States in 2018, where he later pleaded guilty to accepting more than $3.5 million in bribes andsentenced to nine years in prison. His defense sought a reduction in his sentence, citing the harsh conditions of over six years in solitary confinement as a reason, according to the media outlet Expansión.

Milenio reported that the defense also requested that the time Yarrington spent in Italian custody be considered, which led to his original release date of December 2025 being moved up to November 2024.

Yarrington, however is also wanted by Mexican authorities. In April, the Mexican Attorney General's Office (FGR) pursued charges against him, and he has an outstanding arrest warrant for laundering 12.7 million pesos and $450,000, used to purchase properties in both Mexico and the United States.

Yarrington was a member of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) for which he served as governor of Tamaulipas from 1999 to 2004, state used by many cartels as a drug-trafficking route.