Local police in cooperation with anti-economic crime police from the Ministry of Interior confiscated some 200 kilograms of several types of locally made counterfeit medicines from a house in Phnom Penh’s Por Sen Chey district yesterday, police and local media reported yesterday.

Por Sen Chey district police chief Born Sam Art confirmed that the raid took place yesterday, and that two suspects had been arrested, saying that the haul included multiple types of injectable medicines that were not approved for use.   

“Yes, there was a raid against a counterfeit medical production site with a request for cooperation from the officials at the Ministry of Interior,” said Sam Art, who declined to comment in further detail.

The minister of health, Phnom Penh police chief and a spokesman for the National Police could not be reached for comment. Ky Punnara, the deputy Phnom Penh Municipal Court prosecutor who led

the raid, was also unreachable.

Local news outlet DAP News, however, reported that police also seized a motorbike, a car, printers and adhesive labels for the counterfeit drugs that were also seized in the raid.

World Health Organization spokesman Sonny Krishnan said the drugs could have been insulin or injectable artemesinin – a drug used in referral hospitals to treat severe malaria cases, but not usually available over the counter – but said he couldn’t be sure.

“I think the anti-economic crime unit has identified the outlets in Phnom Penh that are selling the drugs, and has also traced the trail of the drugs into country,” he said.

In September, police set a record when they seized more than two tonnes of counterfeit medicine in the capital, only to top the record just six days later with a nearly three-tonne seizure in the same district. ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY STUART WHITE