Security guards at Roo Hsing Garment Co in Phnom Penh’s Russey Keo district allegedly made off with some 20,000 pairs of high-end jeans on Saturday after incapacitating their fellow guards by drugging their coffee, the factory’s management said yesterday.

Lak Daramony, administration manager at Roo Hsing, which produces jeans for brands like Levis and H&M, said yesterday that the jeans had been ready for export, and that the total retail cost of the stolen garments was close to $1 million.

The six guards who said they had been drugged were taken to hospital.

“I do not know whether the factory will launch a complaint against the security guard company, since both sides have a contract with each other. The factory’s attorney has not arrived yet at this moment,” she said.

Twelve security guards from the ESP Security company were covering the factory early on Saturday morning, Daramony said. At about 12am, the suspects bought coffee for six of the guards, allegedly drugging the coffee in the process. The six passed out shortly thereafter, while the other two guards who were not purportedly drugged, fell asleep of their own accord.

Daramony said that security camera footage showed the four guards using a truck to take the jeans off the premises at about 2am on Saturday morning.

Hun Hean, chief of police in Tuol Sangke commune, where Roo Hsing is located, said that police were working on tracking down the suspects – who he declined to name – but that police wouldn’t pursue any action against the security company unless the factory failed to reach an agreement with them.

“I know that the representative of private security company came to the factory, but I do not know about this because I am busy with [other duties], but we have noted it already,” he said.

Russey Keo district police said yesterday that the security guards who fell asleep, as well as those who were allegedly drugged, would be called in for questioning.

ESP Security could not be reached for comment yesterday.