A man is arrested with more than 3kg of ICE in Phnom Penh. Cambodia National police
In seperate crackdowns, police arrested a man in Phnom Penh on Friday for possessing over 3kg of methamphetamine, while Svay Rieng police detained seven men on Saturday following a tip-off from Vietnamese police who had earlier arrested a suspect with some 63kg of drugs.
On Sunday, Phnom Penh anti-drug police sent the first suspect to the Phnom Penh Municipal Court after arresting him two days earlier with over 3kg of ICE in Sen Sok district’s Phnom Penh Thmey commune.
Anti-drug department deputy director In Song told The Post on Sunday that after questioning the 33-year-old suspect, police sent him to the Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Sunday afternoon.
“Police caught the suspect red-handed with the drugs. We have the drugs as evidence and we have already sent him to court,” he said.
During the bust, which was conducted with the cooperation of the court, police confiscated 3.00976kg of methamphetamine, a motorbike and a mobile phone from the suspect.
Separately, Svay Rieng provincial police anti-drugs office chief Kan Ken told The Post on Sunday that seven men were arrested and sent to the provincial court on Saturday accused of dealing in drugs.
The crackdown was made after Vietnamese police arrested its national with over 63kg of drugs, which they suspected he had imported from Cambodia.
The Vietnamese police reported the arrest and their suspicions to their Cambodian counterparts, who quickly investigated the tip-off and subsequently summoned 10 men for questioning in Svay Rieng, Ken said.
“Initially we called in 10 people to be questioned, but we allowed three of them to return home because they weren’t involved. We found that seven of the men were actively involved and detained them,” he said.
In the first four months of this year, authorities cracked down on 2,520 criminal cases involving drugs, confiscating more than 300kg of illegal substances and detaining 5,405 suspects. Of the number, 255 were female, a report by the General Commissariat of National Police revealed.
A National Authority for Combating Drugs report said that 16,139 people were arrested last year for drug crimes. It said 310 were foreigners from 24 countries.
