The Supreme Court on Friday upheld the life sentences of disgraced former anti-drug czar Moek Dara and his partner Chea Leng following a three-day hearing last month.

The pair – a former secretary-general at the National Anti-Drug Trafficking Department and a former Ministry of Interior anti-drug chief, respectively – were found guilty in January 2012 of taking bribes and siphoning drugs from confiscation stockpiles.

Both their verdicts were previously upheld by the Phnom Penh Municipal Court and the Appeal Court but they took their cases to the Supreme Court last year.

“The facts show that the accused committed drug crimes with properly organised and systematic orders,” said Judge Heng Priya yesterday. “They were anti-drug officers but they organised drug trafficking.”