An alleged high-level member of a drug ring was arrested in Phnom Penh with US$8,000 worth of crystal methamphetamines on Saturday, Phnom Penh municipal police said at a press conference yesterday.

Lieutenant-Colonel Chuon Narin, chief of the Phnom Penh Municipal Police Commissioner’s serious penal police, said Pav Buntharo, 26, also known as Mab, had been arrested in Prampei Makara district’s Boeung Prolit commune.

“He was arrested while police were patrolling in Boeung Prolit commune and found him standing around selling drugs there,” Narin said.

According to Narin, police seized a large quantity of methamphetamines, which had been divided into 44 smaller packages for resale, as well as a scale allegedly used to weigh drugs.

“This is a big crackdown on drug trafficking,” he said.

Narin said Buntharo confessed to having been involved in the drug trade since January of this year, and had been preliminarily charged by police with drug trafficking.

Sok Roeun, deputy prosecutor at the Phnom Penh Municipal Court, said Buntharo had been sent there for interrogation by prosecutors, but charges would not be laid until judges’ investigations were complete.

To contact the reporter on this story: Buth Reaksmey Kongkea at [email protected]