Svay Rieng provincial anti-drugs police sent two Vietnamese women to local court on Tuesday after almost 500g of methamphetamine was found in their homes following their arrest for drug dealing.

The pair were detained on Sunday in Svay Rieng province’s Bavet city, which borders Vietnam, after police confiscated from their persons two packages of meth weighing 27.023g.

Police took the women to their rented homes, where 22 further packets of drugs weighing 451g were found.

Svay Rieng provincial police anti-drugs bureau chief Kan Ken on Monday said one suspect who worked at a Bavet town casino was 37 years old. The other was 56.

The two women lived in the town’s Bavet commune.

“The two suspects were arrested while dealing drugs. Following legal procedures, we sent them to the provincial court,” he said.

On Sunday night, Bavet police patrolling the area stopped and searched the pair after becoming suspicious of their activities, Ken said.

The women told authorities that they had purchased the drugs from a local dealer and did not traffic them across the border with Vietnam.

They had been selling drugs to users in Bavet town for more than a month before being busted, he added.