Mark Standen was charged on Tuesday with conspiracy to import enough pseudoephedrine to manufacture $120 million of the drug methamphetamine

Mark Standen, 51, was charged on Tuesday with conspiracy to import enough pseudoephedrine to manufacture $120 million of the drug methamphetamine, or ice. He also faces a charge of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice.The arrest sent shockwaves through the NSW criminal justice community because of Standen's seniority and his three-decade career investigating narcotics and organised crime.In 1982, Standen gave evidence before the Stewart Royal Commission into Drug Trafficking confirming that he and two colleagues from the Federal Narcotics Bureau had flushed down a toilet 18 foils of hashish.The commission heard that the three agents had raided a Bondi house on May 7, 1979. The occupant, a man called Udy, admitted the drugs were his and later signed a statement confessing possession.Standen told the royal commission he later destroyed the statement as part of efforts to obliterate all traces of the raid."I do not actually specifically remember the incident - I feel fairly certain I would have destroyed it by shredding," Standen recalled under oath.He said he and his fellow officers decided to destroy the drugs and associated paperwork because the amount of drugs was less than 500 grams and charges could not be brought under federal customs laws. The case would have to have been handed to the NSW police.The royal commission was told Standen had been charged under the Public Service Act, a financial penalty had been imposed and that he and a fellow officer were to be barred from joining the federal police when the AFP took over the Federal Narcotics Bureau from the Customs Department.The royal commission later heard that the financial penalty and the charge against Standen and another officer were dropped."I found out to my amazement that that had occurred," the AFP's Detective Chief Superintendent Brian Bates told the commission.He said the charges and fine were dropped after the Commissioner of the AFP, Sir Colin Wood, had determined Standen would not be accepted into the AFP. Chief Superintendent Bates said it was felt that being barred from the AFP was punishment enough.But another senior AFP officer, Chief Superintendent John Reilly, gave a different reason: he told the commission that the charges against Standen weren't pursued because of indecision between two government departments.Standen told the royal commission he had never been punished in any way."When we became part of the federal police in 1979, I was not offered a position in the police field but I was offered a position in the intelligence side … I never actually started in the intelligence area. Before that was due to happen, the decision was changed," he said.The testimony given before the royal commission was enough to raise questions in Federal Parliament.
Labor senator Nick Bolkus asked the Minister for Administrative Services, Senator Tony Messner, "Did Mr Bates say nothing was done about the charges because the two men were to be denied entry to the federal police … and did Mr Bates also say that despite this … they were still transferred to that force? … Was the Government aware of this rather unorthodox series of events?"Senator Messner declined to answer, saying the matters were still under investigation by the Stewart Royal Commission.When Standen was arrested this week, his Crime Commission colleagues voiced disbelief. But claims have emerged since that Standen's alleged gambling problem was well known when he left the AFP in 1996.The NSW Government yesterday announced the state's Police Integrity Commission would oversee the Crime Commission in the wake of the Standen charges.NSW Police Minister David Campbell said the Police Integrity Commission, which has the powers of a royal commission, would oversee all activities of the Crime Commission, effective immediately.
He said the public would expect that past cases involving Standen were "now properly scrutinised".Mr Campbell yesterday also revealed the Independent Commission Against Corruption was first made aware of allegations against Standen in September last year