Police raided a timber storage yard and cosmetics shop yesterday in Phnom Penh, seizing more than 160 boxes of body lotion, makeup and other products in the largest reported crackdown on unlicensed cosmetics vendors so far this year.

Officers from the Ministry of Interior’s Anti-Economic Crime Department conducted two separate raids in the capital yesterday – one in Prampi Makara district and another in Chamkarmon district – collecting 164 cases of illicit goods, police said.

Long Sreng, deputy chief of the department, said the raids on the properties, both owned by the King Well Trading Company, had netted 39 cases of lotion and 45 cases of cosmetics.

“Now we are questioning the owners of the two locations and will send them to court on Tuesday for legal action,” he said, adding that the raids were carried out in conjunction with the Phnom Penh Municipal Court prosecutor.

According to a police report of the raids, the authorities are searching for King Well Trading employee Oeung Sakim.

Court deputy prosecutor Tob Chhunlong could not be reached for comment.

Bootlegged cosmetics are regularly seized by authorities, with one of the country’s largest hauls in recent years coming in June 2013, when police confiscated hundreds of bottles of chemicals due to be turned into shampoo.