CIDG: 15 of 29 active, ex-cops in 2022 Mayor drug mess now in custody

Fifteen of the 29 active and former cops with arrest warrants over the alleged staged operation of the P6.7- billion drug haul in Manila in 2022 are now in police custody, the Philippine National Police - Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) said Monday.

“May 15 actually tayo na under custody na. May mga ilan pa na both active and retired ang total niya. May ilang natitira pa. Nandyan naman, we're in the process of taking them into custody,” CIDG chief Police Brigadier General Nicolas Torre III said in an ambush interview.

(We actually have 15 under custody. They are active and retired cops in total. There are still at large. We’re in the process of taking them into custody.)

According to Torre, some of the individuals who are still at large have expressed their willingness to surrender to authorities.

Interior and Local Government Secretary Jonvic Remulla earlier said a PNP-wide probe will be launched on drug hauls beginning 2016 after the order to file criminal charges against 30 cops linked to the controversial drug haul in 2022.

A panel of prosecutors has filed charges against 30 cops, including two ranking police generals, for violations of the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002.

Of the 30 charged individuals, arrest warrants have been issued against 29 of them.

The cops’ supposed violations include the planting of evidence and the delay and bungling in the prosecution of the drug cases.

The case was centered on dismissed Police Master Sergeant Rodolfo Mayo Jr. who was nabbed as authorities confiscated some 990 kilograms of suspected shabu with an estimated value of over P6.7 billion during drug operations in Manila in 2022.

He served as an intelligence officer for the PNP Drug Enforcement Group, based on police records. He was dismissed on March 21, 2023 over three counts of grave misconduct and conduct unbecoming of a police officer.

''The incident material to this criminal violation pertains to the bogus hot pursuit operation against Mayo where he was allegedly caught with two kilograms of shabu at Quezon Bridge,” the panel said in a resolution.

“As earlier discussed, this was merely concocted and staged with the intention of remedying the previous botched anti-drugs operation against Mayo, after realizing that he must not be set free,” it added. — RSJ, GMA Integrated News