Sad fact of flying in this part of the world is that there are a lot of rich daddies whose offspring did not do well in the academic sense... best course of action is get them a CPL and fast-track them into the LHS, voila.. my son is a "Captain".
Said offspring are typically hard partying chaps and booze and drugs are part of their scene... no problem as daddy is ever ready to bail them out.
Hard to imagine but in this part of the world there is not much of a General Aviation scene to supply pilots for the airlines. In the old days, the legacy carriers had their own cadet-ship programs, supported by some air-force pilots but due to the recent explosive expansions the easiest source for pilots are those who pay their way.
In the old days, the legacy carriers could pick the 'cream' of the school leavers, top scorers in O and A levels. Not so much now.. its more a case of meeting the minimum requirements, academically and professionally (as a pilot with CPL).
In this part of the world, the Captain is still God and most of the guys down the line know that they became captain because they had powerful friends...that's why they step carefully.
With regards to the F/O.. could it be that they were partying together? More than likely if they were away from base. That would explain the reluctance to say anything.