Drug cop charged with corruption in 1982

The NSW police investigator arrested this week over a conspiracy to import pseudoephedrine into the country was charged nearly 30 years ago with corruption, it has been revealed.

NSW Crime Commission assistant director of investigations Mark Standen was charged this week with conspiracy to import 600kg of pseudoephedrine, used to make the drug ice.
He also faces a charge of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice.
But Fairfax reports that in 1982 the Stewart Royal Commission into drug trafficking heard that Federal Narcotics Bureau agents Standen and Stephen Innsley had both been charged after being caught flushing drugs down a toilet.
The men were charged after it was found they had not only disposed of the 18 foils of cannabis, but also had failed to report they had ever seized them.
The charges were dropped after assurances Standen and Innsley would not be appointed to the newly formed Australian Federal Police (AFP) - assurances that were subsequently ignored in Standen case.
The new claims come the NSW opposition increases its calls for a judicial inquiry into the Standen case - calls so far resisted by the Iemma government.
Standen was recruited from the AFP to the Crime Commission 10 years ago.

6 Jun 2008

So no one did a check to see if he was a convicted criminal ??? ??? Or maybe they did, as it looks like it is a prerequisite to be part of law enforcement in Australia.