More than 12 tons of drugs and precursors were seized from two labs on mango farms in Kampong Speu and a Phnom Penh BKK 1 condominium, leading to the arrests of five individuals, antidrug police said.
In a statement on Thursday, police said the raids were carried out a week ago on May 19 following two months of investigations.
The raided locations were Kampong Speu labs in Oral district’s Sangke Satoap commune and Phnom Sruoch district’s Yeay Mao Pichnil commune, as well as Phnom Penh condo J City in Boeng Keng Kang I, it said.
Police seized a large number of machines, equipment and materials for processing and packages, and more than 40 kg of ketamine, it said. It also confiscated 1.4 tons of ketamine mixture and 11 tons of chemical precursors.
National Police deputy chief Mok Chito said the mixture was half-finished drugs that required further processing at the Kampong Speu facilities.
“The locations were not manufacturing but processing, meaning that they use the half-finished product,” Chito said.
“We will work hard to investigate money flows,” he added. “We will freeze the property of the mango farms.”
Though the police statement listed the arrests of four Taiwanese nationals, Chito said there were five people now in custody.
“We cannot say anything yet because it is under investigation, and we need to find the mastermind who is behind it. After they produced [the drugs], they were to transport it by sea to Taiwan.”
The suspects and evidence have been sent to the Phnom Penh Municipal Court, he said.
