Chinese and Taiwanese Suspects Charged Following Kampong Speu Drug Raid

FILES: Police stand guard in front of Phnom Penh municipal court in Phnom Penh on November 26, 2020, during a mass trial against more than 100 opposition members and activists charged with conspiracy to commit treason related to self-exiled opposition figurehead Sam Rainsy’s failed plan return to the country in 2019.

The Phnom Penh Municipal Court has charged three men—two from China, one from Taiwan—with a range of offences in connection to a police raid on a suspected drugs manufacturing operation in Kampong Speu Province



PHNOM PENH--Two Chinese men and a Taiwanese man on Dec. 20 were charged by the Phnom Penh Municipal Court with illegally producing, transporting and trafficking drugs and money laundering.



Deputy Prosecutor Plong Sophal declined to comment, saying only that the case has been referred to an investigating judge for further investigation.



One Chinese man, 58, also had Cambodian nationality, while the other Chinese man is 48-years-old and the Taiwanese man is 31-years-old.



This comes after a police raid on Dec. 12 uncovered a large-scale drug factory in Kampong Speu Province that was reportedly the result of more than two months of investigating. More than 1.4 tons of drugs and 84 tons of ingredients needed for the drug ketamine were seized and another Taiwanese man was killed in a shootout with police.



Police insist that the Taiwanese man opened fire first, but the number of arrests made on Dec. 12 remain unclear. Authorities have said the drugs were being transported to Preah Sihanouk Province prior to the raid.



 


Related Articles