Cambodia Sees Spike in Drug Arrests in 2023
A military police officer stands guard during a ceremony destroying illicit drugs in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, on June 26, 2022. Photo by Sovannara/Xinhua
- By Xinhua News Agency
- January 5, 2024 6:10 PM
PHNOM PENH -- Cambodia has seen a spike in the number of people arrested in drug involvements despite a drop in the amount of narcotics seized in 2023, according to an Anti-Drug Police Department (ADP) report on Friday.
The authorities had detained 19,940 drug-related suspects last year, up nearly 35 percent from 14,784 a year earlier, the report said, adding that 499 of the detainees were foreigners of 17 nationalities.
"A total of 2.97 tonnes of all kinds of illicit drugs had been confiscated from the suspects' possession during the crackdowns from January to December 2023," the report said.
The amount of narcotics seized last year represented a significant decline from 14.5 tonnes confiscated in 2022, the report showed.
The seized drugs included heroin, ecstasy, ketamine, nimetazepam, cocaine, crystal methamphetamine, methamphetamine pills, and cathinone, among others.
The Southeast Asian country has no death sentence for illicit drug traffickers. Under its law, those found guilty of trafficking more than 80 grams of illicit drugs could be imprisoned for life.
