A Malaysian national was arrested at Phnom Penh International Airport en route to Macau yesterday with more than a kilo of heroin strapped to his thighs, police sources said yesterday.

Ahmad Johari Chung, born in 1993, arrived at the airport at noon and was detained at the departure gate, where he was found to have 1,088.61 grams of heroin on his person, according to an airport police officer who declined to be named.

“The police decided to stop him and test the powder and found it was heroin. Then he was sent to the anti-drug department,” he said.

A senior official working on the case at the Interior Ministry’s anti-drug department said the suspect was being questioned late yesterday afternoon, declining to give further information as it might jeopardise a wider investigation.

“We are questioning him here to find out who is behind him. He is cooperating with us. He is just a delivery man,” said the official, who also declined to be named.

In February, Cambodia was named in a UN Office on Drugs and Crime report as an increasingly important transportation hub in the regional drugs trade, which it noted has skyrocketed in recent years, with regional crystal methamphetamine seizures up fivefold in as many years.

Meanwhile, in Sihanoukville, 31-year-old French national Julien David Fleury was brought before an investigating judge at Preah Sihanouk Provincial Court yesterday to answer questions surrounding drug possession, use and trafficking charges, according to provincial deputy prosecutor Huot Vichet.

Suy Hieng, police chief of Mittapheap district’s commune 4, said that Fleury was residing at a Koh Rong guesthouse and was found with 3.2 grams of methamphetamine on his person.