Cambodian police seize 13 million smuggled pills

Thursday, August 26, 2010
Radio Australia News

Cambodian police say they have netted nearly 13 million smuggled flu tablets that could be used to make millions of illegal drug pills.

A man was arrested in connection with the tablets, seized Sunday at a warehouse near the northeastern border with Thailand.

The pills contain the active drug ingredient pseudo ephedrine, a precursor for methamphetamine and amphetamine

Cambodia has become a popular trafficking point for narcotics after Thailand toughened its stance on illegal drugs in 2002.

Former top Cambodian anti-drug official charged

October 26, 2009
ABC Radio Australia

The former head of the anti-drug trafficking bureau in the Cambodian capital, Phnom Penh, has been charged for possessing 100-thousand US dollars worth of methamphetamine. Touch Muysor has been suspended after a joint investigation by local authorities and America's Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Presenter: David Boyle
Speakers: Kea Chhay, defence lawyer; Son Chhay, Opposition Sam Rainsy MP; Dr Anand Chaudhuri, United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime

Click here to listen to the audio program (Windows Media)

BOYLE: Touch Muysor once held one of the highest positions in the Cambodia police force... Now he's facing drug and corruption charges. $US100,000 worth of methamphetamines was found in Touch Muysor's office. He's the second senior police officer this month to be charged with drug related offences. His lawyer, Kea Chhay, says his client was just doing his job.

KEA CHHAY: "I think he keeps the drugs in his office so I think he was working at his judicial office - it's part of his work".

BOYLE: Kea Chhay refused to br drawn further on the case but said Touch Muysor denied any wrong doing. The charges are a result of an extensive investigation by the FBI and local law enforcement. It will be alleged Touch Muysor received bribes from local drug dealers. Opposition Sam Rainsy MP Son Chhay says corruption problems are entrenched in local authorities and he's welcomed American involvement in investigations.

SON CHHAY: "It is a really complicated kind of business to deal with in Cambodia due to corruption, due to the kind of gang or group of business involved in drug in this country who have linked themselves to the very high ranking officials in government. It would not be easy for even a good official who works in combating drugs to be able to do anything. Thanks to the FBI and others who have been working with the department authority, combating drugs authority, who have been pushing that the government must do something. "

BOYLE: The National Authority For Combating Drugs is the key instrument Cambodia's government uses to prevent drug trafficking. Radio Australia was unable to contact the Cambodian government, but the head of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, Dr Anand Chaudhuri, says the arrest of Touch Muysor is evidence that Cambodia is now taking drug prevention very seriously.

CHAUDHURI: "This is evidence of the police capacity of enforcing drug prevention - they're not even leaving their own kind. You see it's a very good example of the Prime Minister and the Deputy Prime Minister taking an active interest, not today, but over a long period of time."

BOYLE: Dr Chaudhuri has heaped praise on the Cambodian Government's adoption of radical new strategies in tackling drugs, which he says are unique within mainland South East Asia. He says foreign partners like the Australian Federal Police have been instrumental in helping the government improve their drug policy.

CHAUDHURI:"There's no reason to leave out the importance Australia has placed in the Asia Pacific region as a whole on this matter and the role of Australia in supporting government to look at this problem. It's a completely new direction. Now, they're switching gears and going in for a three year action plan in which they are considering drug users as victims. Now this is a very, very important milestone in Cambodia. Cambodia is probably one of the only countries with no harm reduction policy, but still having needle syringe exchange programs going on in their capital city. They want to observe the results and they are very happy with the Australian Narcotics Control Department - the ANCD's report on needle exchange programs. They, the royal government of Cambodia, had a five year action plan which is ending this year and that action plan was targeting the supply of drugs, and they've done an efficient job on that."

Anti-drug trafficking officer arrested for drug possession

19 October 2009
Everyday.com.kh
Translated from Khmer by Socheata

Following the suspension of the director of the anti-drug trafficking of the Phnom Penh police office on 09 October, Touch Muy Sor was arrested in the afternoon of 15 October 2009 at the Ministry of Interior. The arrest of Touch Muy Sor takes place 2 days after 8,000 methamphetamine (ecstasy) pills were found hidden in his office. These 8,000 ecstasy pills are valued at about $100,000. According to a group of police officers, Major Touch Muy Sor became the director of the anti-drug trafficking office when Heng Pov was the Phnom Penh police commissioner, and Touch Muy Sor was one of Heng Pov’s close confidants and right hand men.

Police Sting Operation Uncovers Khmer Drug Ring Trafficking Yah Bah Into Thailand

May 20, 2008
Pattaya Daily News (Thailand)

A Khmer drug trafficker was caught in an undercover police sting operation, on May 19, 2008, trying to sell 1,000 tabs of Yah Bah, (amphetamine) in Bang Saray. The trafficker was part of a well-established drugs ring with headquarters in Siam Reap, Cambodia and used the border crossing of Baan Laem to get the drugs into Thailand.

The police sting team led by a number of high-ranking officials, including , Pol.Col.Kittiphong Gnao-muk, deputy commander and chief of investigation centre section #2, Pol.Col. Itthiporn Bpo-thong, superintendent section #2, Capt. Chachawan Meesawad, Capt.Siriphan Meelaksan and Capt.Samorabpum Jantho, from the Navy drugs suppression team, along with a military police investigator, set up the Khmer front-man, Mr.Chead, promising to buy the Yah Bah at Bt160 a tablet, with a street retail value of somewhere in the region of Bt160,000. The rendezvous was outside Bangsaray Seafood Restaurant, Moo 4, Bangsaray.

Mr.Chead's controller was an individual by the name of Mr.Li Chea, nicknamed Da (32) from Ji-Klang, Siam Reap province, Cambodia. Following the arrangement to buy the drugs with the undercover police, Mr.Chead contacted Mr.Da to deliver the consignment to the rendezvous.

The police sting team laid in wait for the dealer to arrive and when he did swooped down and arrested him with the incriminating evidence. He later told police that it was a well set up operation where smugglers regularly hid the drugs up their rectums in order to get across the border at Baan Laem, Pong-namron district, Chantaburi province. The six-man trafficking team was subsequently picked up by a blue car and then dropped off individually en route at stipulated drop zones.

Police charged Mr. Da on the double count of smuggling illicit, category 1, drugs, into Thailand to sell and having entered the country illegally.

Cambodia Faces Drug Problem [-Guess who the drug lords are...]

Sok Khemara, VOA Khmer
Washington
29 October 2007

Cambodia has become one of the worst drug nations in the region, a Cambodia drug official said Monday.

Youths, laborers, even fishermen, are driving the demand for cheap methamphetamines of the sort found in a major lab bust in April that put Cambodia on the production map, said Tea Phaully, a program officer for the UN Office on Drugs and Crime.

Nearly four tons of drug-making materials were seized in a Kampong Speu province methamphetamine lab in April, the biggest bust in the history of Cambodia, which traditionally held a place as a major transshipment point for drugs. Officials said the bust demonstrated that Cambodia had become a major producer, as well.

"No elsewhere in the region can compare to Cambodia," he said, as a guest on "Hello VOA."

Cambodia is also a major supplier of sassafras tree oil, which can be used in the production of the drug Ecstacy.

Workers along the Thai border are highly susceptible to drug addiction, Tea Phaully said, where they begin at first by smoking the drug, then injecting it intravenously, a practice that spreads HIV.

The workers have been tricked, he said. They think they can work harder using the drug, but they end up spending their money on it.

Drug rehabilitation centers have been established in Battambang, Banthey Meanchey and Koh Kong provinces, as well as Phnom Penh and Siem Reap, he said.

Thai drug agents seized 50 tons of sassafras oil (raw material for ecstasy pill) from Cambodia

Drug agents seize 50 tonnes of precursor

Tuesday October 23, 2007
Bangkok Post

Chon Buri - More than 50 tonnes of sassafras oil, a precursor for illegal drug production, have been seized at Laem Chabang deep-sea port. The shipment was destined for the United States and China. Drugs police said it could have been used to produce ecstasy pills worth about six billion baht.

Chartchai Suthiklom, adviser to the Office of the Narcotics Control Board, said the oil, worth about three million baht, was in 240 containers and totalled 50.4 tonnes. The chemical safrole could be extracted from the oil and was a primary precursor in drug production.

When mixed with other chemicals the safrol in the shipment could make about 7.5 million ecstasy pills, with a street value of about six billion baht, said Mr Chartchai.

It was thought the shipment came from Cambodia, one of the major producers of sassafras oil.

Sassafras is a plant in the same family as cinnamon, a source said. The oil is extracted from the root-bark and fruit.

Safrole is listed as a drug under the UN 1988 Convention on Illicit Traffic of Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances, to which Thailand is a member. Exporters of safrole must inform the destination country to ensure strict control of its movement.

Traders are also needed to obtain import or export licences from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Failure to do so carries a maximum penalty of 15 years in jail and a fine of one million baht.

Thailand: Yah Bah scourge in Pattaya was ordered from Cambodia

Chicken Merchant Arrested For Dealing In Yah Bah

August 22, 2007
Pattaya Daily News (Thailand)

Pattaya police arrested a chicken merchant from Rayong Province for dealing in Yah Bah. The illicit drugs were ordered from Cambodia to be distributed in Rayong Province and Pattaya City. Police confiscated the Yah Bah and a gun.

On 22 August 2007, at 3 AM, Police Lieutenant Colonel. Santi Chainiranam, of the Pattaya Police, and a team of officers, arrested a Yah Bah dealer, and then extended the investigation by having the dealer order Yah Bah from Mr. Dul, a Yah Bah agent. They arranged for 350 tablets of Yah Bah to be delivered to Forte Karaoke car park, on North Pattaya Third Road, where police waited to make arrests.

At the time of the delivery, a bronze Toyota Hilux Vigo, license 2689 Rayong, with a motorbike on the back of the truck, covered with cloth, drove into the car park. Police recognized the truck as their target. The truck was driven by a man with a female passenger. Police immediately arrested them as they emerged from the truck. The driver was Mr. Adul Kajornpreedasak, Nickname "Dul" (28), living at 78/13 Moo 2, Namkrok, Mueng, Rayong Province and Miss Goi (Alias) (26), his girl friend.

Police searched the truck and found two bags of Yah Bah, totaling 350 tablets, hidden under the driver’s seat;, and a Noringo nine mm gun, with three bullets. Police confiscated all evidence, including the truck and the motorbike on the back, for further investigation.

Mr. Adul confessed that had been a Yah Bah dealer for a long time. He was arrested two times in the past. When not dealing drugs, he works as a chicken merchant in Rayong Market. He would order the illicit drugs from Khmer people to distribute to customers in both Rayong Province and Pattaya city. Mr. Adul claimed that his girlfriend had nothing to do with the Yah Bah dealing. He said that she merely accompanied him to Pattaya. The police arrested both of them and will investigate further to try and rid the city of this terrible Yah Bah scourge.