More than 460 kg of illegal drugs were found and confiscated by naval forces of the Front Line Maritime Security Command in a forest on Koh Polowai in Koh Rong Sanloem commune of Preah Sihanouk province’s Koh Rong town.
Tea Sokha, deputy Navy commander and commander of the Front Line Command of the National Committee for Maritime Security (NCMS) General Secretariat, told The Post that the drugs were discovered and seized on the evening of February 6 during naval patrols.
“The drugs weighed 465 kg in total. It is likely they were dumped in that area,” he said.
Sokha said the haul was brought to the NCMS’s Front Line Command by the patrol forces the next day.
Mak Chito, deputy secretary-general of the National Authority for Combating Drugs (NACD), told The Post that test results indicated that the drugs were ketamine.
“These kinds of drugs are mostly imported by criminals from Taiwan via the sea to evade the authorities,” he said.
According to Chito, in the past, anti-drug police have busted drug smugglers five times in the waters off the southern coast, and in each of those busts, the amount of drugs confiscated was not less than 100kg while the suspects arrested had mostly been Taiwanese.
Chito said an investigation was ongoing to determine who smuggled these drugs and dumped them on Koh Polowai – and who was intended to receive them – in order to bring them to justice.
