The Philadelphia Daily News says city police narcotics supervisors missed or ignored a series of red flags that might have indicated corruption in that unit. The paper reports, "Search-warrant applications read like form letters. A confidential informant made drug buys across the city, sometimes just minutes apart, defying the laws of physics. And narcotics officers worked alone with their informants, violating a Police Department rule. Yet police brass apparently failed to notice."
The paper says the Philadelphia Police Narcotics Field Unit signed off on cookie-cutter applications for search warrants, which are now the subject of an expanding FBI and police Internal Affairs Bureau investigation. The Daily News broke the story with a February series, "Tainted Justice." It noted that narcotics enforcement is ripe for corruption because officers handle large amounts of cash and drugs.
