MEXICO IN MELTDOWN: DRUG LORD PENA NIETO with TOMAS YARRINGTON, former gov of TAMAULIPAS STATE and MAYOR OF MATAMOROS - AND MEX DRUG LAUNDERER?

An uncomfortable photo for Pena Nieto Posted: 23 May 2012 09:47 AM PDT A photo is making the rounds on Twitter, and it is probably one that Enrique Pena Nieto wishes didn’t exist. It shows Pena Nieto with Tomas Yarrington, a former governor of Tamaulipas state and mayor of Matamoros who was fingered by U.S. prosecutors yesterday for allegedly laundering drug profits. We don't have rights to reprint the photo but if you click here you can see it. Pena Nieto is the front-runner for July 1 presidential elections. Yarrington, too, once sought the presidential nomination for the Institutional Revolutionary Party. I don’t know when the photo was taken. But both Yarrington and Pena Nieto look pretty much as they do today. Here’s an AP story about the charges against Yarrington, which notes that he bought a 46-acre piece of land around the San Antonio, Texas, area, and a $460,000 condo on South Padre Island, all apparently with drug proceeds. Here is a copy of the press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office (read to the bottom). I wrote a story about Yarrington’s legal troubles earlier this year here. The noose seems to be tightening around him.