More than 14,000 marijuana plants were set ablaze by police in Takeo’s Kiri Vong district yesterday, authorities confirmed. According to district Police Chief Yuk Sarat, the 14,083 plants were found by a team of 35 police officers over 84 plots in the mountains near Chroy village in Preah Bat Chonchum commune.

According to Sarat, villagers foraging for beehives in the mountains alerted authorities to the presence of more than 13,300 crops on Sunday and over 700 more yesterday. ‘As for the identity of our growers, we are looking to take legal action,’ he said, adding that harvesting of marijuana is most commonly done by villagers who sell the drug in Phnom Penh or Vietnam. According to Commune Police Chief In Savuth, many of the crops were grown on state land.

‘When we come, the evildoers flee away, and escape,’ he said. Kiri Vong district has previously been the site of numerous marijuana busts, most recently in January, when 16,000 cannabis plants were destroyed by authorities there. In December last year, two separate busts were made there totalling some 18,000 plants, while in November nearly 30,000 plants were eliminated.