EDITORIAL - Errant custodians

You’ve heard this story before. Law enforcers given custody of confiscated-items use the goods without proper authorization, or else pilfer the items for their own use or profit. Stolen vehicles used in crimes are impounded, ostensibly as evidence, but end up being used by law enforcers. A victim of carjacking can be victimized twice over – first by the thieves, then by the cops.

Illegal drugs in particular are favorite items of pilferage. There is no definitive study about the extent of this problem, but it is no secret that among the major sources of illegal drugs sold in the streets are law enforcers themselves. If they are not coddling drug traffickers, lawmen are pilfering confiscated drugs including marijuana and shabu. The amount of drugs can dwindle significantly in transit from the site of the seizure to the police station. And the confiscated drugs can continue to be depleted while in storage. Several months ago an employee of the National Bureau of Investigation was arrested for pilferage of shabu stored at the bureau’s main office in Manila.

Now an officer of the Philippine National Police Crime Laboratory at Camp Crame is facing charges of pilfering 1.5 kilos of shabu from his office. Inspector Delfin Torregoza was supposed to present the shabu as evidence in a drug case to the Manila Regional Trial Court last June. An inventory conducted by the PNP led to the discovery of the missing shabu, which could fetch hundreds of thousands of pesos in the streets.

The investigation is ongoing and Torregoza may yet prove his innocence. But his case highlights one of the major problems in the campaign against drug trafficking: the involvement of cops themselves in crime. Shabu in particular has become highly popular among drug abusers des-pite its steep price, making the manufacture and distribution of the illegal substance irresistible to those looking for big profits. In storage, shabu can easily be substituted with other crystalline white substances. How often can law enforcers conduct thorough inventories of their stores of confiscated drugs?

Pilferers are difficult to catch, but the problem can be minimized through a better inventory system in agencies charged with the safekeeping of confiscated items. Stiffer pe-nalties must also be imposed for such acts of pilferage, with the most severe punishment reserved for law enforcement officers.