Pssttt, want to buy meth? Ask for RCAF officer Sok Sovannarith

RCAF officer accused of selling meth

Wednesday, 08 August 2012
Buth Reaksmey Kongkea
The Phnom Penh Post

An officer of the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces was arrested on charges of drug trafficking in Phnom Penh’s Thmey commune on Monday night, police said.

Sen Sok district police officer Keo Sarith said that military officer Sok Sovannarith, 27, a member of RCAF’s Brigade E-70, stationed in Kampong Speu Province’s Otdong district, was arrested while selling methamphetamine at the Suon Reatrey Restaurant in Sen Sok.

“Our police forces arrested him while he was selling the drugs to a number of drug users at the restaurant,” Sarith said.

The drug users escaped, he added.

African traffickers settling here: UN [-The Kingdom of Wonderful DRUGS?]

Friday, 02 December 2011
Bridget Di Certo with additional reporting by Vong Sokheng
The Phnom Penh Post

African organised-crime groups are setting up shop in Cambodia as a centre for trafficking methamphetamines in Southeast Asia, the UN’s Office on Drugs and Crime has said.

In its 2011 report on patterns and trends of amphetamine-type stimulants (ATS), released on Wednesday, UNODC notes the rapid rise of production and use in Southeast Asia.

It says African gangs have “diversified” into ATS trafficking and use Cambodia as a centre for financial transactions and the distribution of drugs to other parts of Southeast Asia.

Cambodia has long been a transit country for drug trafficking and, as UNODC notes, “transit countries for illicit drugs often rapidly develop illicit drug use and manufacture problems”.

Cambodia's Burgeoning Youth Population Increasingly Seduced By The "perfect High" - Report by US Amb. Carol Rodley

Reference id 10PHNOMPENH113
Subject Cambodia's Burgeoning Youth Population Increasingly Seduced By The "perfect High"
Origin Embassy Phnom Penh (Cambodia)
Cable time Wed, 17 Feb 2010 07:29 UTC
Classification UNCLASSIFIED//FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY
Source http://wikileaks.org/cable/2010/02/10PHNOMPENH113.html
History First published on Mon, 11 Jul 2011 23:11 UTC

VZCZCXRO5438
RR RUEHCHI RUEHDT RUEHHM RUEHNH
DE RUEHPF #0113/01 0480729
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 170729Z FEB 10
FM AMEMBASSY PHNOM PENH
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 1675
INFO RUCNASE/ASEAN MEMBER COLLECTIVE
RUEHNA/DEA WASHDC 0007
RHHMUNA/USPACOM HONOLULU HI
RHHMUNB/JIATF WESTHide headerUNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 04 PHNOM PENH 000113

SENSITIVE
SIPDIS

STATE FOR EAP/MLS, EAP/RSP, DRL, INL/AAE -- BRANDON NEUKOM
BANGKOK FOR DEA AND TCAO -- SCOTT ROLSTON

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: SNAR [Narcotics] PGOV [Internal Governmental Affairs] PREF [Refugees] PREL [External Political Relations] ASEC [Security] EAID [Foreign Economic Assistance] CB [Cambodia]
SUBJECT: CAMBODIA'S BURGEONING YOUTH POPULATION
INCREASINGLY SEDUCED BY THE "PERFECT HIGH"

REF: A. 2009 PHNOM PENH 391 (MINI-DUBLIN)
¶B. 2009 PHNOM PENH 203 (METH BUST)

SENSITIVE BUT UNCLASSIFIED - NOT FOR INTERNET DISTRIBUTION

¶1. (SBU) SUMMARY: A recent uptick in drug use, particularly
ice - the crystallized form of methamphetamine preferred by
Cambodia's new urban elite - has resulted in increased
scrutiny of the social triggers and available treatment for
Cambodia's young population. Reported increases in teens

holding "drug parties," domestic violence, rape, and gang

activity have a potential to affect social stability and in

part have been attributed to lack of jobs, inadequate

recreational activities for the youth, the wide availability

of methamphetamines, and absence of effective drug treatment

facilities. Drug treatment centers have long been accused of
human rights abuses, and the Royal Government of Cambodia
(RGC) is just now beginning to grapple with a response. As
the youth population continues to swell and job creation
continues to diminish or stagnate, there is an acute need to
address drug dependence in Cambodia. END SUMMARY.

The Youth Problem
-----------------

¶2. (SBU) A recent Interagency Conflict Assessment revealed
that the growing youth population and low law enforcement
capacity are two of the most significant issues threatening
Cambodia's political, economic and social stability.
Cambodia enjoyed double digit economic growth over the past
decade. High growth rates have created expectations of
continued prosperity among young people in a society where
the median age is 25 and 24% of the population is between the
ages of 15 and 25. As the global economic crisis hit
Cambodia's export-driven economy, a widening gap developed
between expectations and reality. The effect struck

particularly hard on a naive Cambodian youth population who

are slowly realizing that their expectations of easy jobs and

money may be left unfulfilled. As a result, they are overly
susceptible to negative social forces, and rates of drug
abuse and illicit activity are on the rise.

¶3. (SBU) Stories of "spoiled children" running into trouble
with the law litter the local media. These same teens in
rehabilitation centers tell of selling gifts from their
parents, such as motos and jewelry, to buy drugs. One
rehabilitation resident stated he spent $1000 of his parent's

money in one month on drugs, a huge sum in a country where

the average family lives on less than a dollar a day. GDP
per capita has steadily increased over the past decade, with
only a slight drop in 2009 due to the global economic crisis.
While reliable estimates on the size of Cambodia's emerging
middle class do not exist, one of the country's leading think
tank directors believes it to be anywhere from 5-10% of the
population. For the Cambodian youth that is part of this
growing middle class, the new concept of disposable income
appears to be both seductive and dangerous.

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.

Cambodia police arrest 23 Nigerians in heroin case

2009-06-20

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP): Cambodian police arrested 23 Nigerian men suspected of drug trafficking as authorities continued to hunt for the ringleader and other suspects, an official said Friday.

Police Maj. Born Sam Ath said the 23 suspects were arrested in separate operations Wednesday after authorities received information from a Cambodian woman about their activities.

Three of the suspects were arrested while traveling on the road in the capital, he said, adding that officers found 1.5 pounds (0.7 kilograms) of heroin hidden in a bag of clothes.

Police interrogated the three suspects and later arrested 20 others, Born Sam Ath said.

Investigators continued to search for the group's leader and others involved, he said. He declined to comment on the identity of the leader and the number of those still on the run.

The suspects were held at a police station and have not been charged officially, the police official said.

Earlier this month, the authorities torched nearly three tons of an herb used to produce "herbal ecstasy" as part of a campaign to wipe out designer drugs.

The bonfire destroyed ephedra, used to make "herbal ecstasy" pills that have been blamed for deaths in the United States and elsewhere, as well as another ton of the chemical thionyl chloride, which is used to make methamphetamine. "Herbal ecstasy" typically refers to a combination of stimulants--often including ephedra.

Southeast Asia has long been a major producer and exporter of heroin, and in recent years it has also become a major source of stimulant-type drugs such as methamphetamine.

Myanmar is a leading exporter of both heroin and methamphetamine, which are smuggled into and through nearby countries. Cambodia has increasingly become a transit route for drug smugglers.

Three Men Nabbed for Drug Trafficking

By Chun Sakada, VOA Khmer
19 March 2009

Police arrested three alleged drug traffickers in Phnom Penh Wednesday night, seizing more the 25,500 methamphetamine tablets, one pistol, and one assault rifle, a senior counter-drug official said Thursday.

The arrests were the result of a raid on a vehicle near the intersections of Monivong and Mao Tse Tong boulevards in Chamkarmon district around 7 pm, police said.

The three vehicle occupants, all Cambodian men, Vong Sothun, 30, Nou Bunlong, 37, and Su Leang, 51, were being questioned by Ministry of Interior police Thursday.

“The three ringleaders were transporting the drugs from the Lao border to sell in Phnom Penh,” Lt. Gen. Mek Dara, secretary-general of the National Anti-Drug Authority, told VOA Khmer.

Phnom Penh authorities followed up on information from the border police in Stung Treng district, who noticed a suspicious vehicle and called it in, he said.

In the first three months of 2009, counter-drug police have “suppressed 64 cases of illegal drugs,” he said. Police have arrested 132 people on drug-related charges and confiscated more than 50,000 methamphetamine tablets.

Police in 2008 pursued 196 cases related to illegal drugs, 50 cases more than in 2007, arresting 388 people, he said.

CAMBODIA: Rising drug use jeopardises AIDS success

Crystal methamphetamine is usually smoked but sometimes injected (Photo: Vinh Dao/IRIN)

PHNOM PENH, 30 October 2008 (PlusNews) - Evidence of the large-scale use and manufacturing of methamphetamine in Cambodia could pose a new challenge to the fight against HIV/AIDS, warned non-governmental organisations (NGOs).

In the capital, Phnom Penh, 14 percent of injecting drug users were found to be HIV positive in 2006, rocketing to 35.1 percent in 2007, according to statistics from the National Authority for Combating Drugs (NACD), a government body.

Studies have found that crystal methamphetamine - commonly known as "crystal meth" or "ice", and usually smoked but sometimes injected - is also associated with high-risk sexual behaviours that can lead to HIV transmission and could inhibit the body's ability to suppress the HIV viral load.

The potent central nervous system stimulant is highly addictive, causing paranoia, delusions and hallucinations. Studies at this point have obtained mainly preliminary data, but indicate that methamphetamine may also accelerate the onset of HIV-related dementia and interfere with treatment effectiveness.

"Though there are conflicting findings regarding methamphetamine ... for HIV infection," said Frederick Curtis, senior technical officer for drug use at Family Health International (FHI) in Cambodia, "a rise in crystal meth use in Cambodia looms as a threat to reversing the HIV-prevalence trend."

HIV infection levels in Cambodia declined from 3.7 percent in 1997 to 0.9 percent in 2006, according to UNAIDS figures.

Street children and sex workers, two groups at high risk of HIV, are especially prone to crystal meth addiction as they abandon the once popular yama, a local slang name for amphetamines.

Data gathered by the NACD revealed that treatment admissions for crystal meth addiction increased by 18 percent during the first six months of 2008, compared to the previous six-month period, while yama admissions fell by 15 percent.

The trend reflects similar data from Thailand and Malaysia, reported at the First Global Methamphetamine Conference in September 2008 in Prague, Czech Republic.

"We've also seen that users will turn to methamphetamines because they think it will help them overcome heroine addictions," Curtis told IRIN/PlusNews.

Addiction dangers and HIV

Crystal meth - with 80 percent purity - is more addictive than other drugs and could pose problems to HIV prevention services in Cambodia.

Curtis noted that the effects of the drug, described as an intense rush of pleasure, were experienced almost immediately; Yama pills were not as pure, and the effects only kicked in after 40 minutes when taken orally.

"This intense euphoria is not lost on youth looking for new thrills," Curtis said. Ice also seemed to be favoured by an ever younger population of users, replacing ecstasy as the drug of choice in nightclubs and bars.

Cham Sopheap*, 25, a male clubgoer in Phnom Penh, agreed, and didn't think meth would put him at risk of HIV as other drugs did. "The NGOs teach us not to inject drugs, so we don't," he said. "I don't understand how smoking a drug would spread a disease."

He was more likely to hire sex workers when using the drug. "I've done it maybe four times, and every time I call a prostitute at the end of the night to lay with me," he commented.

"Meth doesn't make me feel energised like I want to have a lot of sex, but just that I want to lay around with a girl. I think this leads to sex."

Cambodia endangered by new, drug-fuelled AIDS epidemic

Oct 13, 2008
DPA

Phnom Penh - Cambodia faces a fresh HIV/AIDS epidemic because of a sharp rise in intravenous drug use driven by an influx of cheap methamphetamines, a senior government official said Monday.

Lou Ramin, director general of the National Authority for Combating Drugs, told a conference that statistics showed overall drug use had decreased but intravenous use was growing and spreading.

The driving force of the trend was a newfound popularity of ice, a cheap but particularly potent and addictive methamphetamine often sold in crystal form, he said.

'The face of drug use in Cambodia is changing,' he told officials. 'Even though the use of drugs in Cambodia has decreased overall, it has spread. Before, drug use outside of the capital was rare, but new reports show this is no longer the case.

'Now we have the rise in the use of ice, which is often injected,' he said. 'This is a very worrying trend, because injection carries an increased risk of HIV/AIDS.'

Ramin said his authority found that while 14 per cent of intravenous drug users in the capital were HIV-positive in 2006, that figure had risen to 35.1 per cent by 2007 and with the spread of ice, in particular, there was a real fear of a nationwide trend.

Cambodia has been held up as a model in the fight against HIV/AIDS after managing to reduce its infection rate substantially in recent years.

However, it still has one of the highest rates in the region, and experts have warned that complacency and changing demographics of those most at risk, ranging from sex workers and soldiers to drug users and others, could easily lead to a fresh explosion of the disease.

CAMBODIA: Methamphetamine usage rising

Crystal methamphetamine being sold on the streets of Phnom Penh (Photo: Vinh Dao/IRIN)
Addicted to crystal methamphetamine, 24-year-old Thom has been living on the streets of Phnom Penn for four years (Photo: Vinh Dao/IRIN)

"In 2000, when the substance users first started using drugs, it was sniffing glue. Now, over the years, 'meth' has become easily available and turned into the new gateway substance for street kids."

PHNOM PENH, 21 August 2008 (IRIN) - Shirtless, with crude tattoos and scabs on his upper arms, 24-year-old Thom has been living on the streets of Phnom Penh for the past four years, one of a growing number of youths struggling with their addiction to crystal methamphetamine, also known as “ice”.

Typically smoked, the potent central nervous system stimulant is highly addictive, causing paranoia, delusions and hallucinations.

According to an annual narcotics report released on 12 August by the National Authority for Combating Drugs (NACD), use of “ice” is on the rise even though illicit drug use in Cambodia is stabilising, and drug related arrests in 2007 were over 50 percent down on what they were in 2006.

Working with the NACD, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) compiled data from the Ministry of Interior and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) working in the drug sector.

The report gives a comprehensive picture of illicit drug use, and on a smaller scale evaluates the reliability of the routine surveillance systems being employed.

Traditionally a drug-trafficking route in southeast Asia, the report says that for the first time Cambodia has emerged as a possible methamphetamine producing country.

Drug raids

Earlier this month, anti-drug police raided a clandestine drug lab on a cattle ranch in the province of Kompong Speu, about 81km southwest of Phnom Penh.

No drugs were found, but the NACD identified chemicals used in the two-stage process of manufacturing methamphetamine, known as the “Emde Process”.

“There is a level of sophistication evident from the Kompong Speu raid that is a bit disturbing. Because we only found the first stage of production there, we suspected that there was another facility nearby,” Lars Pederson, head of UNODC in Cambodia, told IRIN.

Drug experts estimate that, based on the materials found at the site, several million doses of methamphetamine could have been produced.

Four foreign nationals along with 14 Cambodians were arrested. One of the foreign nationals arrested, a Chinese national, had been detained at Phnom Penh International Airport in October 2002 for smuggling 10kg of palladium which is an integral ingredient in the second stage in the “Emde Process”.

He was later released as the importation of palladium was not controlled at the time in Cambodia, but he never returned to claim the unpaid duty on the substance. Soon afterwards, the Cambodian government placed palladium on the list of controlled substances.

Another indicator that Cambodia has emerged as a producer of methamphetamines was the arrest of the leader of a methamphetamine tableting operation in August 2007.

At a site in Phnom Penh, military police found a variety of illicit drugs. During the raid, military police also found a rotary tableting machine with the capacity of producing 10,000 methamphetamine tablets per hour. Such a machine had never been seized by officials in Cambodia before.

“These two raids highlight the risk of industrial-sized drug producing capability in Cambodia,” Pederson said. “This showed a level of sophistication in the manufacturing process, which included multiple production locations and logistics.”

New drug of choice

The NACD report also says there has been a shift in usage, mainly by Cambodian youth who have switched from glue-sniffing to “ice”.

In 2000 a survey produced by Mith Samlanh, a local NGO that rehabilitates street children in Phnom Penh, found that 12 percent of street children were using methamphetamines. By 2007 the number had jumped to 87 percent.
In 2000, when the substance users first started using drugs, it was sniffing glue. Now, over the years, `meth’ has become easily available and turned into the new gateway substance for street kids.

But what is more alarming is the increase of methamphetamine use among street children aged 12-18, while usage among those in those aged 19-25 declined over the same period.

“In 2000, when the substance users first started using drugs, it was sniffing glue,” said David Harding, technical adviser for drug programmes at the NGO Friends International. “Now, over the years, `meth’ has become easily available and turned into the new gateway substance for street kids.”

“We are now starting to see small numbers of kids at the age of eight using meth,” Harding added.

Rehab centres

NACD Secretary-General Lour Ramin said the government was now adjusting its tactics and focusing on arresting drug dealers, while referring illicit drug users to rehabilitation centres.

One such rehabilitation centre, Korsang, run by a risk reduction NGO specialising in injecting drug users, is where many go for treatment for their addiction.

Thom said he has been going to the facility for six months in the hope of kicking his methamphetamine habit.

“I had problems with drugs for many years. Now I am here at Korsang to try to cut down my drug usage,” he said.

A group of about 30 youths mill around the centre, illustrating the problems Cambodia currently faces with illicit drug use. But there is a glimmer of hope for the youth of tomorrow as stated by Sophea “Wicket” Heng, director of Korsang: “The government is catching onto the problem and is working with grassroots agencies and local authorities to tackle the problem.”

Pursat Drug [Mreah Prov - Sassafras] Oil To Be Destroyed

By Heng Reaksmey, VOA Khmer
Phnom Penh
21 May 2008

National drug authorities plan to destroy three tons of sassafras oil, which can be used in the manufacturing of methamphetamines, in Pursat province next month, officials said Wednesday.

The Interior Ministry collected the oil, which can be harnessed from Cambodia’s forests, in Battambang, Pursat and Kampot provinces, Gen. Lour Ramin, secretary-general of the National Authority for Combating Drugs, told reporters.

The destruction of the oil comes as officials worry Cambodia may be transforming into a production, rather than transshipment, country in the drug trade. Police raided a large methamphetamine lab last year, arresting 18 people and seizing three tons of production chemicals.

Interior Minister Sar Kheng said he admires the work of authorities who seized the oil this year and the chemicals last year, but he cautioned that Cambodia remains a country of drugs and trafficking.

US national charged with coat-hanger strangling of girl in Cambodia

Tue, 04 Mar 2008
DPA

Phnom Penh - A US national was charged with murder after police were called when he jumped from his burning apartment and they discovered the body of a young Vietnamese woman, a court official said Tuesday. Grant Kim Helling, 46, was charged with the murder of the unidentified woman Monday, Phnom Penh Municipal Court prosecutor Ouk Savuth said by telephone.

The alleged crime took place two weeks previously and investigations were continuing, Savuth said.

The motive was unclear but methamphetamines were believed to be involved, police said. They said Helling had admitted to strangling the woman but said he had not realized he had killed her.

Police were still investigating how the apartment had caught fire and whether it was an attempt by Helling to destroy evidence.

Under Cambodian law, Helling can be held for six months in pre-trial detention. He faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted.

The local English-language Cambodia Daily interviewed Helling in hospital where he is being treated for injuries sustained from his leap from the window.

"It was an accident ... one of those things you can't avoid - like a mosquito," the paper quoted him as saying.

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.

Cambodian police detain American on drug, immigration charges

Sep 10, 2007
DPA

Phnom Penh - Cambodian police said Monday that they had arrested a US national accused of possessing methamphetamines and not having a valid passport.

Phnom Penh Foreigner Police Chief Mom Sitha gave the man's name as Daniel Jakob Thoreaux Division, 39.

'He was arrested ... because he was sleepy on the street and behaving strangely,' Sitha said. 'Police found a small amount of methamphetamines on him as well as equipment for smoking drugs and a set of scales.'

Sitha said it was unclear why the man was carrying scales because the amount of drugs was only enough for personal use but investigations were continuing. He said the American was detained over the weekend.

After we arrested him, we also found he had no passport, which is another serious charge,' he added.

Sitha said Division was expected to face court Tuesday on the drugs charges and he was still awaiting orders regarding the immigration charges.

The 39-year-old could face a prison term as Cambodia continues to crack down on a growing methamphetamine problem, although deportation was also a possibility because of the small amount in his possession.

If the court finds he has a case to answer, Division might be detained up to six months under Cambodian law as he awaits trial.

Authorities did not reveal the exact amount of drugs recovered.