Crooked cops: Duterte’s drug war

• crooked cops 坏警察(police officers doing illegal things)

  
  crooked cops

The unexplained crash of a helicopter, which injured the four Philippine National Police generals on board, has delayed the submission of the findings of a police investigation of 356 police officers whom President Rodrigo Duterte suspects of involvement in the illegal drug trade.

Evidence of such involvement may open a new front in Mr Duterte’s lethal war on drugs, which has killed thousands of people without much curtailing the trade.

• curtail v. 缩短；削减

Since the killings began, in 2016, the price of the commonest drug, methamphetamine【甲基苯丙胺；脱氧麻黄碱；（俗称）冰毒】, has fallen, signifying that supply continues to outstrip【超过；胜过】 demand.

The price is among several indications that the war on drugs is, in reality, a turf war【（地盘、势力范围等的）争夺战；地盘之争】 among drug gangs.

And gangs composed of police officers, or protected by them, are winning.

Mr Duterte’s war will seem less of a deadly sham if he acts on evidence in the police report about crooked cops—assuming, that is, it contains any.

Mar 9th 2020