Around 525 litres of safrole oil, a key ingredient in MDMA, or ecstasy, was uncovered by Pursat province police on Sunday.

Veal Veng district police said the truck was specially designed to haul the oil. Veal Veng district police chief Theang Leng, said the truck was seen driving back and forth from Veal Veng to Phnom Penh before it was stopped and searched by police on Sunday evening.

The truck’s driver and passenger escaped while unsuspecting police inspected the vehicle.

The quantity could be enough to produce almost 45 kilograms of MDMA.

“This is a new tactic for drug traffickers in transporting drugs in Cambodia,” said Leng.

“And this is also a new experience for me, as well as our police forces. We’ve never encountered this before.” 

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