EDITORIAL - Are there others?

When police carried out a drug buy-bust operation in Tondo, Manila, last Sunday, they found something shocking aside from the P6.7-billion worth of shabu; evidence that a policeman may be involved in that drug operation itself.

What is more worrying is that Police Master Sgt. Rodolfo Mayo Jr. is assigned to the PNP Drug Enforcement Group's Special Operations Unit in the National Capital Region. At least he was, before his arrest following the buy-bust operation.

Considering his job as intelligence officer, Mayo was in a position to tell his colleagues where drug operations were taking place, who the players are, and how their distribution system worked. In all likelihood he may have been using his position to make sure that his own drug business was safe by operating right under the very noses of his fellow policemen.

All things considered, Mayo may yet be able to prove his innocence. The fake IDs police found during the buy-bust may have been part of his intelligence operations, the firm he owns where the shabu was found may not have anything to do with the drugs at all. But the way we see it, things don’t look particularly good for him right now.

Which brings us to the inevitable question: Are there other policemen involved in the drug trade? PNP chief General Rodolfo Azurin himself said that Mayo may just be the lowest-ranking policeman in a conspiracy by several policemen to sell drugs. It is also possible that this group of drug-selling policemen Mayo is in, if it exists, may just be one of several.

This administration has a big challenge when it comes to dealing with the drug menace, something left over from the previous administration which badly mishandled this malady by concentrating only on cutting off the supply and mostly ignoring the need to eliminate the demand.

The fact that some drug peddlers are now in cahoots with policemen or that policemen themselves are venturing into the drug trade bodes ill indeed.