EDITORIAL - Another drug flea market

How hard is it to dismantle a drug “flea market” or tiangge? In 2006, anti-narcotics agents from the Philippine National Police headquarters at Camp Crame swooped down on a drug den set up within spitting distance of the Pasig City hall. The den was large enough to be called a tiangge or flea market, and reportedly served as a one-stop shop for drug dealers and users.

The raid led to the arrest and conviction of drug den operators Amin Imam Boratong and his wife Sheryl Molera, who are serving life terms at the National Penitentiary. Now PNP probers are pursuing reports that Boratong or his henchmen are behind another drug tiangge that was raided Friday night again in Pasig.

In 2006 the drug flea market was based in a slum community. This time about 200 members of different police units from Camp Crame raided six houses in Villa Monique subdivision in Barangay Pinagbuhatan, arresting 16 people and confiscating guns, cash and shabu.

The country has tough laws against drug offenses. Like kidnapping for ransom, however, enormous profits from the drug trade have made the illegal activity flourish. Among those drawn by the profits are law enforcers themselves as well as barangay officials, some of whom were implicated in the operation of the Pasig shabu flea market that was dismantled in 2006.

People high on drugs can be as easy to spot as drunkards. A drug den cannot operate undetected in a community unless those in charge of maintaining peace and order at the grassroots are looking the other way. And there’s normally one major incentive for authorities to do so. That incentive has to be the reason why most raids on shabu laboratories end up with the arrest of only minor employees, with the operators tipped off and managing to escape.

Apart from building a case against the 16 suspects rounded up in the latest Pasig raid and determining if Boratong continues to run his trade from behind bars, investigators should find out if the operations enjoyed the protection of anyone in government. Coddlers deserve the same harsh punishment as the drug dealers themselves.