Preah Sihanouk provincial court and military police officials questioned eight people yesterday after the discovery of an alleged drug production site at a guesthouse in Sihanoukville’s commune 3.

Deputy provincial prosecutor Ream Chanmony said yesterday that local authorities had raided the guesthouse at around 8:45pm on Monday, arresting the Australian owner, his Vietnamese wife, a female Cambodian employee and five other men.

“Military police are questioning them now, so I haven’t received any reports yet,” he said.

“We arrested one Cambodian woman, one Vietnamese woman and foreign men of different nationalities.”

“[The guesthouse] is a drug production location because we confiscated drug substances, medicines and marijuana,” Ream Chanmony claimed, adding that authorities had checked rooms and found a range of drugs and drug production materials.

Heng Bunty, deputy provincial military police official, said yesterday that the eight suspects were under interrogation by military police officials.

He added that among those arrested were Cambodian, Vietnamese, Australian, American, Russian and Swedish nationals.

Meanwhile, in Phnom Penh yesterday, three Vietnamese nationals were charged over one of the biggest drugs busts to be seen in the capital’s history. Deputy chief of the Phnom Penh Municipal Police, Pen Rath, said that You Sieng Hom, 34, his wife Fang Thyngok, 29, and You Tai, 21, were all charged with drug trafficking and drug production activities.

They were arrested in a raid in Camkarmon district last Friday, during which authorities seized 20 kilogrammes of liquid amphetamines.

Subsequent raids on five other  sites in the capital have found another 20-kilogramme haul of the drug, police said yesterday.

Teang Chansar, chief of the municipal anti-drugs police at the Ministry of Interior, said that police had spent many months investigating  before the arrests were made.