A Venezuelan woman was arrested with nearly 1.5 kilograms of cocaine at Phnom Penh International Airport on Monday night, just hours after a Malaysian man was discovered to have a kilo of heroin strapped to his thighs while going through departures on his way to Macau.

National Police anti-drug chief Mok Chito said yesterday that the woman, Adelys Paola Lopez Alviarez, had flown from Brazil via Ethiopia and Thailand before arriving in Cambodia.

“We saw she travelled through Brazil so we were suspicious,” Chito said, adding that customs police had already detected the drugs in her luggage and waited for her to claim it.

“She came first and the drugs came later. She came and waited for her stuff, and when it came, we arrested her,” he said. “Her destination is not Cambodia because cocaine is not used in Cambodia.”

An anti-drug police officer who declined to be named said it is believed the cocaine was destined for Thailand.

“Going on our experience, she was just transiting here,” he said, adding that police did not believe her case had any connection with the Malaysian national arrested earlier the same day.