Seven armed men who stormed a dental clinic in Siem Reap province to liberate a convicted Chinese drug lord in broad daylight on August 17 have now been arrested.

Cambodian authorities are working with the Interpol to locate both the ringleaders and the fugitive inmate, who was receiving dental care at the downtown clinic.

Deputy National Police chief Mok Chito said on August 19 that the arrest followed an extensive countrywide search. He disclosed that among the group, six were Cambodian-Americans and one was Chinese-American. All of them held US passports and hailed from Long Beach in the US state of California.

“Our law enforcement agencies are in collaboration with neighbouring countries. We are diligently working with all relevant units to locate the escaped prisoner and the orchestrators of this breakout,” he said.

Chito noted that the inmate had faced two sentences. Initially, he was handed a 29-year prison term and then sentenced to an additional 26 years for drug dealing while incarcerated. In all, the term amounted to over 55 years.

Back on the morning of August 17, six men armed with silenced handguns stormed the Chum Chenda Dental Clinic to free the Chinese inmate who had been escorted by prison guards to the facility for treatment.

The group, clad in black suits and masks, held the prison officers at gunpoint and corralled them into a treatment room before escaping in a waiting car, which they later abandoned about 1km away from the clinic.