"We suspect it's somewhere in the range of $300 - $400,000," says City Manager Enrique Serna.
The story began last may when FBI agents served search warrants at the South Tucson City Hall, the South Tucson Police Department and the former officer's west side home.
Officials say the former officer was solely responsible for the evidence room, including all seized assets and cash. Some of that money was to help fund the police department's $2 million budget.
The sheer amount of money and items stolen will not only affect the police department, but the community as well.
"It's going to hurt us," says Serna.
The police department was going to use part of the money to hire more officers.
South Tucson Police Chief Sharon Hayes Martinez says, "That's a huge loss for us monetarily because that is what we use to buy police cars, send people to training and equipment that we purchase."
Another thing hurting the bottom line of South Tucson's Police department is that they get no government money. Federal officials are holding back handing over funds until they are satisfied South Tucson has safeguards in place to keep this from happening again.
The investigation is now in the hands of the U.S. attorney's office. The DEA has reviewed the new policies and procedures and has resumed working with them on asset seizures.
The officer has not been publicly named because he is not yet been charged.
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