Top anti corruption cop caught in global drug cartel

Australian Broadcasting Corporation
Broadcast: 11/08/2011
Reporter: Deborah Cornwall

Former top cop Mark Standen has been found guilty for his part in a multi-million-dollar drug plot. The court heard the former NSW narcotics chief had been attracted by the world he was supposed to be policing.

Transcript

LEIGH SALES, PRESENTER: The fall of Mark Standen from one of New South Wales' most powerful policemen to disgraced criminal has been epic.

Today, a jury found Standen guilty of plotting to import million of dollars worth of drugs into Australia. He used his privileged position as the former assistant director of the NSW Crime Commission to help dodge Customs scrutiny.

Standen came undone because he was desperate for cash to support a gambling problem and he was seduced by the five-star lifestyle of the drug lords he was meant to be pursuing.

Deborah Cornwall's been following the case, and a warning: this story contains coarse language.

DEBORAH CORNWALL, REPORTER: It's three years since Mark Standen's extraordinary double life came crashing down around him.

TERRY, FEDERAL AGENT: Mark, I want you to listen to me very carefully, OK? We are here to arrest you.

MARK STANDEN, ASST DIRECTOR, NSW CRIME COMMISSION: I hope you're kidding.

TERRY: I'm not, mate. I'm deadly serious. Do you understand that?

MARK STANDEN: Is this a gee up? It's gotta be a gee up.

TERRY: No, it's not.

DEBORAH CORNWALL: As chief investigator of the NSW Crime Commission and one of the most powerful cops in the country, Standen had to be arrested by his own workmates, the prize catch in a global police sting to smash a major drug cartel.

Right from the start, Standen has always insisted it had all been some terrible misunderstanding.

In fact, it took a two-year international dragnet to finally nail Standen - it's what the Dutch call a crooked hat - the bent cop who'd been acting as the eyes and ears of Dutch drug cartel in part of a plot to produce the country's biggest ever haul of the deadly street drug ice.

Видео Top anti corruption cop caught in global drug cartel канала deborah_cornwall