Captain al Hisan frowns, “look… the primary evidence tying you to the events are the testimony of a gnoll child and a bunch of circumstantial matters. This Purheegee was not in any guild, was apparently extremely unpopular among his kind, and kept literally no record of sales. On the other hand, the judiciary loves to skewer abolitionists, so there is considerable risk. Off the record, what you allegedly did in the sewer was not exactly wrong. I have a rare opportunity where I can make this problem disappear for you. There is risk for me in doing so. There is also a humanitarian disaster growing in my streets that I lack the authority to do a damn thing about.”

“As you surely know, there is no such thing as an illicit drug in Katapesh. Pesh itself is essential to the economy - our city and nation are literally named after it. In the past few weeks, some highly addictive new drug called Bliss has shown up. What we know is it causes intense euphoria, then after continued use what seems to be irreparable insanity. You may have seen some of these people sitting around without a care in the world. The ones that have gone insane are violent and destructive, they fly into an unending fit of rage. Those we’ve managed to subdue never really come out of it; others have killed or been killed when we try to stop them. People are dying, but in my official capacity, I can’t do anything directly about the source, only damage control on the consequences. I don’t care how you fix it - destroy the maker, the operations, the supply - whatever - just get it off the streets. You do that, your problem disappears.”

Spoiler: Mauricio legal lore
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The process of turning a temporarily indentured individual into a permanent slave is something Mauricio is unsure is possible. Most everything else he said checks out with your legal understanding. As to whether the local judiciary is really out to get abolitionists, you are not sure (more in the domain of lore: Katapesh). You suspect that if that is not the case, the low volume of actual evidence plus some well placed bends of the truth from all of you could get you released, but it would take time and have no guarantee of success.

You can see how what he asks of you now is something he can’t do much about, but depending on what you end up doing, it wouldn’t have to be illegal even.