Using information obtained from Vietnamese authorities, Cambodian officials arrested a Vietnamese national in possession of 16 kilograms of Ecstasy yesterday at the Thai Arng guesthouse in Svay Rieng province’s Bavet town.

Meas Vyrith, secretary-general of the National Authority for Combating Drugs, said yesterday that the Svay Rieng provincial authority for combating drugs had recovered the stash.

Kan Ken, director of the provincial authority, said that his forces were informed by Vietnamese officials that two Vietnamese men carrying 2 kilos of drugs had been arrested along the Cambodia-Vietnam border on April 30. The Vietnamese officials believed an accomplice of the two men was hiding out in a Bavet guesthouse.

“We checked in the Thai Arng guesthouse, which they informed us about,” Ken said.

Kao Horn, deputy chief in charge of combating drugs at the Bavet police station, said that while he did not know the names of the suspects arrested by Vietnamese authorities, his forces had arrested 19-year-old Nguyen Mintieng.

Horn said that his forces searched the guesthouse with members of the provincial authority for combatting drugs.

“[The] suspect left the guesthouse at 4am on May 1, and we checked the room and found only the drugs, but the suspect came back to the guesthouse to pick the drug[s] up and we just arrested him there,” he said.

According to National Police figures, Cambodian authorities arrested 7,366 people, including 23 foreigners, before April 30 as part of Cambodia’s ongoing drug crackdown.