A former Mexican governor and presidential hopeful, who was serving a federal prison term in the U.S. for money laundering, was deported by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) this week.

Tomas Jesus Yarrington Ruvalcaba, aged 68, was expelled by ICE on Wednesday and handed over to Mexican authorities, who had been seeking him, the agency disclosed on Friday.

Yarrington served as governor of Tamaulipas, Mexico, from 1999 until 2005 and was a presidential candidate for Mexico’s Institutional Revolutionary Party in 2005.

Court documents showed that he accepted bribes from individuals and private companies in Mexico during his time as governor of Tamaulipas to do business with the state, ICE said. He used the bribery money to purchase properties in the United States, but used nominee buyers in an attempt to hide his involvement.

“Yarrington laundered his illegally obtained bribe money in the United States by purchasing beachfront condominiums, large estates, commercial developments, airplanes and luxury vehicles,” ICE said.

Yarrington was serving a 108-month sentence in the Federal Correctional Institution Thomson in Illinois after he pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering in 2021. (AP Photo/Seth Perlman, File)

Yarrington was caught traveling in Italy in April 2017 under an assumed name and fake passport. He was taken into custody there on a provisional arrest warrant following a May 2013 indictment for various money laundering and drug-related charges.

Italian authorities ultimately authorized his extradition to the U.S., which he fought, and he arrived in the states in April 2018.