to enter the country with more than five kilograms of cocaine from Brazil.
Lieutenant
General Mok Chito, deputy chief of the National Police’s anti-drug commission,
said 35-year-old Romanian national Varadi Adrian Calin was detained at
Phnom Penh International Airport after disembarking from a flight from Brazil. Officials found 4,961.69 grams of Colombian cocaine in his bags.
Phnom Penh International Airport after disembarking from a flight from Brazil. Officials found 4,961.69 grams of Colombian cocaine in his bags.
After
interrogating him, police searched for and arrested Chukwue Meka, 35, who they
say was in charge of smuggling the cocaine from Cambodia to Thailand.
Lt. Gen. Chito
said his office worked with the US Drug Enforcement Administration to catch the
two men before the drugs could be transported to another country.
“We were
informed from an international organization that there was a suspect involved
in drug trafficking who departed from Brazil and was coming to Cambodia,” he
said.
“We seized
almost five kilograms of cocaine,” Lt. Gen. Chito added. “This drug was
transported from Brazil and the traffickers would use Cambodia as a transit
country, before being sent to Thailand. The cocaine is from Colombia.”
Lt. Gen. Chito
said the ringleader of the operation is still in Brazil, and police were
looking for other people who may be involved in the drug ring. Both men will be
sent to court today.
Cambodia is
often used as a transit point for drug traffickers in Asia due to its less-than-stringent
airport checks compared with other countries. In late March, a 22-year-old Thai
woman flying from Qatar was found with 2.6 kilograms of cocaine hidden in a
chocolate container.
Another Thai
man was caught transporting three kilograms of methamphetamine from Laos to
Trapaing Chhouk village in Phnom Penh last Tuesday.
After raiding
his home in Sen Sok’s Phnom Penh Thmey commune, police seized two 660-gram
packages of heroin, nine packets of methamphetamine weighing six kilograms,
52,000 speed tablets weighing about 10 kilograms and two luxury cars.
In all, police
seized about 20 kilograms of drugs from the man, who claimed he had smuggled
most of it from Laos earlier this year.
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