Eleven senior officers of the Philippine Police are suspended after the disappearance of a ton of drugs

10 Apr. (EUROPE PRESS) –

The Philippine Ministry of the Interior announced on Monday the suspension of a total of eleven police officers after the disappearance of almost a ton of methamphetamine known as shabú and after they tried to cover up the main suspect, a police sergeant.

Among the suspended commanders is the head of the Police Anti-Drug Department, Brigadier General Narciso Domingo and other senior officials. General Benjamin Santos would also be implicated, but he retired in March 2023.

The Minister of the Interior, Benjamin Abalos, explained this Monday at a press conference that the now-suspended commanders tried to cover up Sergeant Rodolfo Mayo Jr. –an intelligence services officer for the anti-drug agency– after finding 990 kilograms of shabú in Tondo, Manila, in October 2022, Philippine television ABS-CBN reports. The drug could have reached a price of 6,700 million pesos, almost 113 million euros.

Abalos has expressed his “disappointment” at “the very slow progress” of the Police investigation in which up to 42 kilograms of drugs disappeared. These were later recovered, which led to the creation of the 990 Special Investigation Force.

The members of the special investigation later argued that they only had the objective of recovering those 42 kilograms of drugs and not the remaining 948, which are still missing today.