Hundreds of police officers in Peru have been implicated in a scandal involving bribery and attacks on drug traffickers, stealing drugs and selling them to third parties, an ongoing police investigation revealed Friday according to DPA. Police officers deployed in the jungle region of the Valleys of the Rivers Ene and Apurimac (VRAE) devoted their spare time to attacking drug traffickers and taking their stash. Police Inspector General Luis Henriquez confirmed that an attack reported last month by a drug dealer was not an isolated event but was rather the result of a usual practice among police agents in the region, according to comments in the daily La Republica. Some 120 police officers were removed from their posts. Sixty were considered to be involved in drug trafficking, 27 to have asked drug dealers for money to let them operate and 33 to have remained in the area when they should have left. "This is only the start," said National Director of Police General Octavio Salazar. Raul Salvador, a drug trafficker captured in a police raid in January, said he had been attacked days earlier and had 50 kilogrammes of cocaine base stolen by people he knew to be police officers.
