Preah Sihanouk provincial police sent three Chinese nationals and a Vietnamese national to the provincial court on March 10 after arresting them for bringing drugs to their friends at quarantine locations in Preah Sihanouk city.

Provincial police chief Chuon Narin said on March 10 that the three Chinese nationals are two men aged 29 and 32, and a woman, 22. The Vietnamese national is a 28-year-old online seller.

He said police apprehended them in three separate incidents on March 8. Police officers guarding a quarantine centre in Village 2 of Commune IV within the city arrested a 27-year-old Cambodian taxi driver at 3:30pm after he was hired to bring food to a person under quarantine.

The officers guarding the centre checked the food and found a small package of an unidentified drug concealed within the container. Police questioned the taxi driver, but he claimed that he was unaware that the food delivery contained any drugs.

He cooperated with the police and guided them to the Chinese nationals who had sent the food in Village 3 of Commune IV. The police found the pair in possession of an additional eight small packages of methamphetamines, some “WY” pills and other drug related items.

Narin added that on the morning of March 8, police forces stationed at a casino in Commune IV also stopped a 25-year-old Cambodian tuk-tuk driver as he was bringing food into a quarantine location and discovered drugs within the food delivery container.

The tuk-tuk driver identified the person who sent the food to the police. They then went to a home in Village 1 of Commune II and arrested the Vietnamese woman who’d sent the delivery and seized four small packages of methamphetamines and five “WY” pills.

In yet another quarantine centre-related drug bust, Narin said that police had nabbed a Chinese man after he hid drugs in a food delivery that he himself then brought to a quarantine hotel for his friend. Police seized three small packages of drugs.