Authorities in Takeo and Battambang provinces destroyed a total of 4,282 marijuana plants in separate raids this week.
In Takeo, police on Sunday destroyed 3,452 plants in 12 locations in Kiri Vong district’s Preah Bat Chonchum commune.
Police are searching for the farm owners who went into hiding after the crackdown.
“We have not identified the offenders yet. They live in the forest which makes it hard for us to hunt them down. They escaped there during the raid and we will keep hunting them,” said a Kiri Vong district police officer who asked not to be identified.
He said the raid came after a tip-off from villagers about the cannabis farms in Bek Thlang, Dar Krolang and Thmor Changkran villages of Preah Bat Chonchum commune.
Commune police chief In Savuth said some people had cleared the forest in order to plant marijuana and disguise them as forest trees.
“They planted marijuana in between forest trees to make them look like normal ones. If we don’t take a closer look, we cannot identify them as cannabis,” he said.
In Battambang, police on Friday raided three farms and destroyed 830 marijuana plants in Ratanak Mondol district.
A suspect from Battambang town’s Tuol Taek commune was also detained for questioning.
Ratanak Mondol district chief police Phan Long identified the woman as Lien Mom, 35. She allegedly owned the 830 cannabis plants.
After questioning, she was released after promising not to plant them again.
