The man tasked with heading a new federal institute to sell and distribute goods recovered from drug traffickers and organized crime has resigned, claiming the agency is plagued by corruption.
In his resignation letter, Jaime Cárdenas Gracia said jewelry had gone missing and that financial irregularities were rife.
Cárdenas Gracia, a noted lawyer and academic, ran the Instituto para Devolverle al Pueblo lo Robado (Indep) for just over three months before he called it quits. He admitted that he had clashed with President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador over style and substance, although he called him “a good president” and was “not disillusioned” over his policies.
In a radio interview this week, Cárdenas Gracia said he was loyal to the president but that did not mean “blind loyalty.”
According to a tweet from Indep, the institute raised 3.73 billion pesos from sales and auctions of seized goods in its first 107 days of existence, while Cárdenas Gracia was at the helm.