An undercover officer investigating drug trafficking in Kampong Cham’s Chamkar Leu district was brutally killed by the alleged targets of his investigation after his true identity came to light, police said yesterday.

According to Pen Sira – chief of Ta Pruk commune administrative police and the victim’s former boss – Chamkar Leu district’s anti-drug trafficking officer Hong Chhay Ly, 42, was killed after blowing his cover during a drinking session with the men he had been investigating.

Meas Phearith, acting chief of police in Svay Teab commune, where the killing took place, said that Chhay Ly had been invited to drink with suspects Chhin Bunly, 25, and So Tin, 19 – the targets of his investigation.

“Our forces tried to help him after we received the report from the villagers, but it was too late, since he was already chopped to death in a pool of blood.” Phearith said. “The left hand was cut off and he was stabbed from behind under the right shoulder.”

Police forces surrounded the crime scene and apprehended Bunly and Tin an hour later, he added.

“We are terribly sorry for his death since he served the people and the nation,” Chamkar Leu district police chief En Dara said from Chhay Ly’s funeral.

The two suspects – along with their suspected murder weapons, an axe and a machete – were sent to Kampong Cham Provincial Court yesterday.

The men were preliminarily charged by police with intentional murder, he added.