Editorial - Saved from a life term

As of yesterday, lawmen had no leads on the whereabouts of three convicted Chinese drug traffickers. The three, escorted by jail guards to attend a court hearing on another drug case, were snatched from their custodians by 20 armed men the other day in Trece Martires, Cavite.

Or at least that was the explanation given by the four provincial jail guards of Cavite on the disappearance of Li Lan Yan, a.k.a. Jackson Dy, his wife Wang Li Na and companion Li Tian Hua. If people doubt the story, the jail guards should not be surprised. Too many crime suspects and convicts have escaped from police and jail guards, and often the reason is not negligence or stupidity on the part of the custodians but money. This is especially true when the escapees face charges of drug trafficking.

Many raids on suspected drug laboratories and dens usually fail to nail down the operators, with only the small fry being apprehended. The rare times that the principal traffickers themselves are collared, they manage to walk out of even maximum security detention centers. Others are allowed to post bail by the courts, even when the volume of drugs in question does not allow bail. Still other suspected drug traffickers are allowed by crooked immigration officials to leave the country.

Such incidents reinforce speculation that drug money is at work. Drug trafficking is a multibillion-dollar industry, corrupting people at every stage of the criminal justice system in many countries. The money involved is so large people are willing to risk arrest and capital punishment and serve as drug mules of international crime rings.

Authorities should know this well enough to regard with healthy skepticism the story of the Cavite jail guards. The three drug dealers, who are serving life terms after being convicted by a regional trial court, are gone – and it looks like they escaped. Their custodians must be investigated and, if warranted, punished.