Not quite Mr. Clean Cop?

If a cop with an immaculately clean record was found to be involved in the nefarious drug trade, how much more would it be possible for policemen who are considered bad eggs?

M/Sgt. Rodolfo Mayo was seized on Saturday night in Manila after documents found during the arrest of a drug suspect linked him to the drug trade.

A series of anti-drug operations led police to a large haul of shabu (meth) worth P6.7 billion inside the stockroom of a lending company in Sta. Cruz.

The arrested drug suspect, Ney Saligumba Atadero, had documents identifying Mayo as his accomplice.

Mayo’s colleagues at the Philippine National Police Drug Enforcement Group (DEG) were aghast to find his name in the seized documents.

Mayo, a DEG intelligence operative, didn’t have any record of involvement in drug trafficking.

Now, if a reputedly good cop could be on the payroll of a drug trafficking syndicate, other policemen with not-so-clean records could not be far behind.

In fact, Mayo promised investigators he would disclose details of the drug trade. His revelations might include some of his fellow cops.

Mayo’s revelations might go all the way up in the PNP hierarchy and may even include some politicians.

Some high officials are probably wetting their pants.

If these powerful and influential people were not neutralized or killed during the previous administration’s take-no-prisoner policy, perhaps this time they will be put away for a long, long time – or until their death.

Then president Digong Duterte’s attack dogs obviously went mostly after the street pushers but spared the big dealers or traffickers.

That’s the reason why the large haul in Manila, probably the biggest in the country’s history, was discovered only in the new administration.

There was no way that such a large quantity of illegal drugs would have escaped notice from anti-drug operatives during the previous administration. The narcs obviously looked the other way.

The country is on its way to becoming a narco-state, or probably is one now, like Mexico or Colombia.

Many law enforcers and politicians are either on the take or are themselves drug traffickers.

I remember reading the book “The Mastermind: Drugs. Empire. Murder. Betrayal.” by Evan Ratliff, which identified the Philippines as the base of operations of Paul Le Roux, a South African (though born in Zimbabwe).

Le Roux, who dealt in drugs, arms trafficking and money laundering, operated from Manila from 2007 until his arrest in Liberia in 2012.

Le Roux had at least 10 call centers in Manila, employing more than 1,000 people from all over the world.

As part of his plea deal, the South African crime lord admitted to some unsolved murders.

At one time, according to Ratliff’s book, Le Roux beat up a daughter of a Philippine senator with a baseball bat, for refusing to perform a sexual act on him.

Le Roux invited the unnamed senator to his office and offered him $3 million. It was not clear whether the senator accepted the payoff offer.

Le Roux’s syndicate could not have operated in the country without paying off some law enforcement officials or powerful politicians.

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The recent hostage-taking incident at the Camp Crame Custodial Center involving detained former senator Leila de Lima as a victim was a glaring example of police inefficiency.

Most of our cops could be compared to the bungling, bumbling Keystone Cops characters of the silent film era.

The Custodial Center – a hifalutin’ term for jail – is supposed to be the most secure and best-guarded detention facility in the country because it’s inside the camp of the headquarters of the national police.

But policemen assigned to guard Camp Crame and the facilities inside it, the custodial center included, are either about to retire or be suspended for some misdeeds.

They’re as unreliable as scarecrows.

Camp Crame cops are clock-watchers. All they think about the whole day is for them to be relieved for the day.

More likely than not, the policeman who was serving food to the detainees had his mind somewhere else, giving three of the detainees a chance to grab and stab him.

The saving grace in the situation was that the guards were able to kill all three detainees and save De Lima, who was mostly unhurt, in the process.

The detainees were Abu Sayyaf members on trial for kidnapping.

As the saying goes, “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”

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The state of being absentminded among the guards at the PNP Custodial Center led to the successful escape of three other terrorists detained in the facility years ago.

One of three who staged The Great Escape – reminiscent of the title of a 1960s movie – from the PNP Custodial Center was Fathur al-Ghozi, an Indonesian bomb-maker allegedly involved in the nightclub bombings in Bali in 2001, as well as several other deadly bombings in the Philippines.

The others were Abu Sayyaf bandits being held for ransom kidnappings.

Unlike the characters in The Great Escape, who dug a tunnel to freedom, Fathur al-Ghozi and his companions simply walked out of the detention facility – and Camp Crame – like they were strolling.

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The National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) says it has the photo of a suspect in the killing of hard-hitting radio commentator Percival Mabasa, a.k.a. Percy Lapid.

Big deal!

How can the police identify one of two motorcycle-riding assassins who was caught on camera, when he was wearing a face mask?

The Philippine National Police still doesn’t have the capability of unmasking a crime suspect wearing a face mask by using a computer program.

The only way for the police to unmask the suspects is for somebody who knows them to come out.

I’m sure somebody will betray the suspects. The P6.5-million reward is much too tempting an offer to ignore.