Eight people, including an Interior Ministry police officer, were arrested by Kandal provincial police in a series of raids yesterday and Monday for alleged methamphetamine smuggling.

They will likely go to the provincial court today for questioning and to possibly be charged, provincial police chief Eav Chamroeun said.

Chamroeun added that the alleged drug traffickers were arrested in coordinated raids across three different districts – Kien Svay, Sa’ang and Takhmao town – after a lengthy investigation.

“They were identified as drug distributors. Our provincial police have spent many months researching and investigating them before we could identify their locations,” he said.

“They were arrested after our provincial anti-drug police collaborated with other local and district police to raid seven targets in the province.”

Deputy provincial police chief Chhoeun Socheth, who is in charge of anti-drug trafficking efforts in Kandal, said police seized 22 packages of methamphetamine, 10 motorbikes, 13 phones, a samurai sword, some bullets, cash and ID cards during the raids.

The suspects include Mey Chetra, a 31-year-old intervention police officer at the Interior Ministry. Soceth said that four women were among the eight arrested.

The youngest of the group is 15 years old, and the oldest is 52.