The drug control committees from the coastal provinces of Preah Sihanouk, Kampot and Kep on August 3 held a combined drug burning ceremony of more than 468kg narcotics. On the same day, the Phnom Penh Municipal Court sent a man to prison for trafficking over 4kg of drugs.

Lim Tong Huot – director of the Legislation, Education and Rehabilitation Department under the National Committee for Combating Drugs (NACD) – told The Post on August 3 that the drugs seized during raids in 2020 were set ablaze by the committees.

He added that the original plan was to hold the occasion on International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking on June 26, but the committees were occupied with preventing the Covid-19 pandemic.

“This large quantity of drugs could cause a serious risk to people’s health, especially youths. If police fail to crack down on drugs in a timely manner, the drugs could lead to violence, murder and many other offences that affect security and social order,” Tong Huot said.

Preah Sihanouk Provincial Court prosecutor Seang Sok, who inspected the drugs before they were destroyed, said that although Cambodia has been dealing with Covid-19, it would not disrupt nationwide police crackdowns on drugs.

The quantity of drugs represented the result of 205 raids by police in the coastal provinces.

Separately, the Phnom Penh Municipal Court on August 3 placed a 31-year-old man in pre-trial detention on two drug charges after the Ministry of Interior’s anti-drug department police arrested him in possession of more than 4kg of drugs on July 30.

Municipal court spokesman Plang Sophal identified the accused as a resident of Tuol Svay Prey commune in Phnom Penh’s Boeung Keng Kang district.

“The suspect was charged with stockpiling, transporting, trafficking, using drugs and money laundering,” he said.

According to the NACD, in the first six months of this year police had cracked down on more than 3,000 drug cases, arresting over 7,000 suspects and seized more than 850kg of drugs.