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By KELIN DILLON

The former head of the Mexican Food Security’s (Segalmex) Administration and Finance Unit, René Gavira Segreste, has been accused of requesting hundreds of millions of pesos worth of so-called “tithes” from the government agency’s contractors, a former provider declared before a judge.

According to the Dairy Products Marketing Company of La Laguna’s (Coprolac) Juan Carlos Burillo González, Gavira’s demands included receiving property in the United States and tickets to National Football League (NFL) games in exchange for securing Coprolac’s contracts with Segalmex.

Burillo González alleged that at the time of the contract meeting, Gavira requested that Coprolac pay a 10 percent ‘tithe’ to the tune of 120 million pesos as part of the contract’s conditions.

“They told us that Gavira had the ability to prepare contracts without having to go through any internal control body or the legal area,” said the Coprolac legal representative.

The contracts in question between Segalmex and Coprolac are the same ones the Attorney General of the Republic (FGR) has confirmed were the source of a 1.687 billion peso embezzlement scandal.

Despite the testimony against him, Gavira remains a fugitive of the law at this time.