Nuevo León Governor Samuel García has accused a former official of corruption, claiming that he used public resources to buy as many as 90 luxury cars during a 12-year career in the state water department.

The value of the vehicles purchased by Juan Pulido, a former operations director at the Monterrey Water and Drainage Service (SADM), far exceeded his salary, the governor told a press conference.

The cars are registered in the name of a company in which Pulido is clearly involved, Garcia said.

“It’s estimated there are between 80 and 90 luxury cars in the company. The million-dollar question is: how can a public servant with a net salary of 48,000 pesos [US $2,380] a month afford to buy 80 Lamborghinis? The illicit enrichment is clear,” he said.

García asserted that former directors of SADM, a decentralized organization of the Nuevo León government, embezzled money via simulated infrastructure projects.

“There was a mafia there for 12 years,” he said, adding that public resources were diverted to so-called empresas factureras, or invoicing companies, and subsequently laundered.

García, who succeeded Jaime Rodríguez as Nuevo León governor on October 4, also claimed that nephews of Manuel González Flores – the state government’s former general secretary and interim governor while Rodríguez campaigned for the presidency in 2018 – set up a scheme to defraud Isssteleón, the Nuevo León state workers social security institute.

The brothers Javier and Manuel Flores Martínez embezzled 4.9 billion pesos (US $242.6 million) between 2015 and 2021 via a phony contract with Isssteleón, the governor alleged.

He said that complaints against Pulido and the Flores Martínez brothers have been filed with the Nuevo León Attorney General’s Office.

With reports from Proceso