Siem Reap provincial authorities are searching for the owner of nearly one tonne of rotten pork and chicken innards which was found in a pickup truck in Siem Reap town on Monday. The products were illegally imported from Thailand.

The provincial deputy police chief in charge of anti-economic crimes Mork Theara said on Tuesday that police and officials from the provincial department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries stopped the pickup truck in Siem Reap town because it was transporting several boxes of meat which gave off a foul odour.

He said the pickup truck and its contents were being held by officials. The driver claimed he was only transporting the goods and was not the owner. He made a phone call to the owner to solve the problem, but when the owner found out the police had confiscated the goods, the phone call went dead.

“It is pork and chicken and up to now, we have not found the owner yet. Police are on the lookout for him to solve the problem,” Theara said.

The driver confessed that he transported the meat from Poipet town in Banteay Meanchey province and was heading to Phnom Penh through Siem Reap province.

After questioning the driver and impounding the meat, police turned the rotten goods over to the Production and Treatment Office at the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, where officials destroyed them.

Production and Treatment Office chief Prum Vich said it ordered the driver to sign a contract, promising not to transport tainted products in the future.

“Under the law on Animal Health and Animal Production, the owner is fined, but we could not find the owner, so we must destroy the meat.

“Amid the Covid-19 pandemic, traders should not import such spoilt meat as they contain chemical substances which affect the health when consumed,” Vich said.