Eight foreign nationals were arrested by police on drug related charges in Kampot on Tuesday, after a raid on the Fat Cat bar in Kampot town.

According to provincial police chief, Mao Chanmakthurith, one of his officers, operating in plain clothes, detected marijuana in the venue while working undercover and alerted police.

Police officers entered the premises and arrested the bar owner, a bartender and six patrons they say were smoking marijuana. Officials confiscated half a kilo of marijuana, smoking devices and a scale they say was used for weighing cannabis.

The bar’s customers – one American, one Dutch and four Israelis – have since been released as the prosecutor in charge of the case determined that they were not involved in selling the marijuana, the police chief confirmed.

However, the American bar owner Yana Alexandrovich Demyanov, 36, and Swedish bartender, Blakaj Bujar, 26, remain detained at Kampot Provincial Prison on charges of distributing and consuming an addictive substance, the police said.

According to US-based news sites, a Yan Demyanov of the same age faced charges relating to heroin possession in 2010, in the state of Massachusetts.