Cambodian police seize over 4 kg of drugs in raid

Cambodian police have arrested a Laotian man in northeastern Stung Treng province on suspicion of trafficking about 4.3 kg of drugs, an anti-drug police officer said Saturday.

Yin Panharith, head of an anti-drug team at the Interior Ministry's Anti-Drug Department, said Kham Saiyavongsa, 46, was arrested late Friday when the suspect used his luxurious car to smuggle the drugs from Laos into Cambodia.

"Some 2 kg of crystal methamphetamine and 2.32 kg of heroin were seized during the raid," Panharith, who led the crackdown, told Xinhua. "The confiscated drugs are estimated to cost more than 100,000 U.S. dollars."

He added that the raid was made after the police had been tipped off about the drug trafficking.

Cambodia has no death sentence for drug traffickers; under its law, a person who traffics more than 80 grams of drug will be facing life imprisonment.

The Southeast Asian country saw a sharp rise in drug arrests in 2015. According to the National Authority for Combating Drugs, about 7,008 drug suspects were caught last year in 3,061 cases and some 1,620 kg of drugs, including marijuana, heroin, cocaine, ketamine, ecstasy and methamphetamine, were confiscated. Endit