A man was detained by anti-drug police in Stung Treng town’s Kham Phan village on Tuesday after police found more than 10,000 methamphetamine tablets in his possession.
Stung Treng provincial anti-drug office chief Chem Phanith told The Post on Tuesday that the suspect, 26, is a Cambodian native to Stung Treng province’s Siem Pang district. He is married to a Lao woman and currently lives in Laos’ Champasak province.
“The suspect was trafficking illegal drugs from Laos through a corridor in Kham Phan village to deliver them to his associates, but he was found and detained by police,” he said.
He told The Post that his team was patrolling their assigned area when they saw the suspect at about 9:20am on Tuesday in the area, near the town’s ring road. He was carrying a black plastic bag.
Police detained and questioned the suspect. Inside the bag were two yellow packages containing a total of 10,215 WY methamphetamine tablets. Police filed a report and sent the suspect to Stung Treng provincial police headquarters.
In a separate case, National Police on Monday detained four suspects in Phnom Penh during a crackdown and confiscated 140 small packets of methamphetamine in white powder form.
The crackdown occurred at a slum, in Group 26 in Srah Chak commune’s Village II in Daun Penh district. Police further detained more than 20 others for substance abuse.
Following the crackdown, Phnom Penh Municipal Police chief Sar Thet told The Post: “In total, the police detained 22 people in connection to drug offences. Seventeen of them were examined and found to have drugs in their systems, two were drugs dealers, and the other three [were not seen to] abuse drugs.
“As for now, we’ve sent those with drugs in their systems to rehabilitation centres to neutralise the influence of the drugs. We’ve sent those trafficking drugs to court. Those determined not to be involved in drug offences were lectured and released to their homes.”
In response to widespread concerns that drugs continued to be dealt in areas near the train tracks, Thet said the authorities continued to address the issue and are working to investigate and prevent the drug flow.
It is a continuous effort and not a one-time deal, he said.