The Social Affairs Ministry said it plans to reduce the number of people detained at Phnom Penh’s Prey Speu center, months after a local NGO said detainees had died at the center in 2022.
Phnom Penh residents in Kakab I commune say plainclothes police officers are camping to make drug arrests, but have been seen planting drugs on unsuspecting people or extorting seemingly innocent arrestees for money to get their possessions.
Residents of a Phnom Penh community swarmed a police car when plainclothes officers tried to arrest a local 18-year-old for drugs in May. It’s not the only community that has resisted official raids in recent months, and police have launched a review.
Eighty tons of ketamine precursors have been found following a fatal shootout and seizure of 1.4 tons of the drug that led authorities to a Kampong Speu lab, where a prominent agroindustrial company said it was merely leasing facilities within the same compound.
Police confiscated 759 kg of drugs and arrested 7,246 people in drug cases in the first six months of the year, according to National Police anti-drugs chief Mok Chito, who said traffickers were trying to take advantage of Covid-19 disruptions.
Cambodian anti-drug police made more than 21,000 arrests and seized 3 tons of drugs, almost 3,000 motorbikes, 26 assault weapons, five residential properties and a warehouse, pointing to domestic production as well as a continued rise in trafficking across Southeast Asia.
Interior Minister Sar Kheng said on Wednesday that he was concerned his countrywide drug crackdown would fail if his officers remained among those trafficking drugs.
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