Rob McEwen, the president and chairman of a Canada-based mining company, revealed in a television interview on Thursday that his company has a "good relationship" with drug traffickers in the area.

McEwen, whose company McEwen Mining Inc. had been robbed of $8.5 million in gold in Mexico, explained how his employees always ask the drug cartels for permission before they begin mining exploration, saying, "Generally we've had a good relationship with them (the cartels)."

As reported by The Associated Press, McEwen clarified the dynamic of his company’s relationship with the cartels saying, “If we want to go explore somewhere you ask them and they tell you, 'No.' But then they'll say 'Come back,' in a couple of weeks; 'We've finished what we're doing.'"

On Tuesday the company suffered a theft of 1,984 pounds of gold-bearing concentrate which contained 7,000 ounces of gold.

Beyond this robbery, which occurred at the El Gallo 1 mine in the western state of Sinaloa (an area that is controlled by a drug cartel bearing the same name) McEwen claimed his company has not had to deal with any other crime.

Authorities in Sinaloa say that as of now the nature of the theft suggests the involvement of employees or former workers of the mining company who would have understood the operations and known how to get to the gold.

While committing the crime the thieves overpowered two employees who had keys to various parts of the site.

Martin Robles Armenta, Sinaloa's deputy attorney general, explained to reporters that one reason investigators believe the theft was the result of an inside job was that the door to the vault where the stolen material was stored had been left open since the day before.

McEwen described the theft as "very well planned," adding that a month's worth of mining production was pilfered.