The Deputy Attorney General in Mexico in charge of organized crime has resigned amid an escalating drug ware between the drug cartels and federal troops.

From the LA Times:

A shake-up in the attorney general’s office had been rumored since an alleged high-ranking operative for the Juarez cartel briefly escaped from the agency’s custody in June. Pedro Sanchez Arras, known as “the Tiger,” managed to flee the National Arraignment Center, a Mexico City lockup under the direction of the federal prosecutor’s office.

The alleged drug trafficker was quickly recaptured by agents who found him hiding in a building not far from the arraignment center. But his ability to elude dozens of guards raised speculation about corruption within the ranks of the attorney general’s office and its ability to secure its own detention facilities.

In April, the alleged leader of a kidnapping gang died in the custody of the Office for Special Investigation Into Organized Crime. The agency said that Asael Alejandre Roldan committed suicide by hanging himself with his jacket. But a videotape obtained by local media showed Roldan dressed only in a T-shirt and jeans at the time of his arrest, raising suspicions about the circumstances surrounding his death.

Corrupt, poorly paid and ill-trained police have hampered efforts to vanquish the cartels.

In the southern state of Campeche, 50 state and local police officers have resigned this week, according to the national daily El Universal. The officers cited low salaries and fear of the increasingly violent and better-armed drug assassins operating on Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula.

The story is much the same in northern Mexico. In Lerdo, Durango state, 30 police officers have quit in the last few days and at least 120 more are threatening to unless they get better pay, equipment and life insurance.