Authorities in Battambang province’s Banan district seized more than 17,000 marijuana plants and 16 kilograms of dried marijuana on Saturday in a raid on a farm that yielded three arrests, police said yesterday.

Banan district police official Theng Bunthorn said yesterday that farm owner Min Thavry, his wife, Kong Nuon, and worker Long Chreb had been arrested in the sting on Thavry’s property.

Deputy district police chief Thaung Then said that while the dried marijuana had been sent to court, “the fresh marijuana trees were not sent yet, and we are waiting for the prosecutor’s orders”, adding that Thavry was not a native of the area where he had set up his two-hectare farm.

According to Then, Thavry confessed to growing the marijuana for sale in Preah Vihear province, and told authorities that he hadn’t had a very easy time of it – his first crop was destroyed by floods last year, and this year’s crop was seized.

He also told police that he had been purchasing his seeds from Preah Vihear province, Then said.