Cambodia burns 3 tons of herbs used to make drugs

4,000kg ingredients burnt

		In a ceremony on the outskirts of the capital Phnom Penh, drug authorities burned more than 2.8 tonnes of ephedra herbs and nearly one tonne of other chemical substances. -- PHOTO: REUTERS

PHNOM PENH - CAMBODIAN authorities on Tuesday burned nearly four tonnes (4,000kg) of substances that could have been used to produce millions of metamphetamine pills, officials said.

In a ceremony on the outskirts of the capital Phnom Penh, drug authorities burned more than 2.8 tonnes of ephedra herbs and nearly one tonne of other chemical substances.

The material, confiscated in a crackdown on drug labs earlier this year, could have produced 'millions of methamphetamine pills,' said General Moek Dara, secretary general of the National Authority for Combating Drugs.

He said if illegal drug manufacturers had successfully produced the pills, they would have been trafficked to countries around the world.

'But we cracked down on time,' he told AFP, adding that some equipment used to make metamphetamines was also burned.

Impoverished Cambodia has become a popular trafficking point for narcotics, particularly metamphetamines and heroin, after neighbouring Thailand toughened its stance on illegal drugs in 2002. -- AFP

2nd June, 2009, The Associated Press

(AP) — PHNOM PENH, Cambodia - Cambodian authorities on Tuesday torched nearly three tons of an herb used to produce "herbal ecstasy" as part of a campaign to wipe out designer drugs recently uncovered in the country.

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 one ton of the chemical thionyl chloride, which is used to make methamphetamine. "Herbal ecstasy" typically refers to a combination of stimulants-often including ephedra.

The ephedra was seized in raids earlier this year in eastern and southern Cambodia, said Deputy Prime Minister Ke Kim Yan, who chairs the National Committee for Combating Drugs.

Officials at the ceremony, which included Australian drug experts, said the ephedra herbs were not grown in Cambodia but had been trafficked from China.

Authorities seized the thionyl chloride during a raid on a laboratory on an isolated farm west of Phnom Penh in April. It was Cambodia's first discovery of a laboratory producing synthetic drugs.

Cambodian police burn four tons of seized 'ecstasy' ingredients

Phnom Penh - Cambodian authorities on Tuesday burned four tons of ingredients used in the drug ecstasy after a series of raids that led to the arrest of four people, including two Chinese citizens. Mek Dara, secretary general of the National Authority for Combating Drugs, said military police burned three tons of the sassafras plant, from which the ecstasy chemical ingredient MDMA is derived, along with one ton of other chemicals used to make the drug.

"We conducted a series of raids in Phnom Penh, Kampong Cham province and Takeo province over the weekend and arrested four people involved in importing this plant from China and growing it in Cambodia," he said. "Two Chinese citizens were arrested in these raids along with a Cambodian man and a Cambodian woman."

Mek Dara said the destruction of the ingredients Tuesday morning in Phnom Penh was supervised by Australian and US drug-trafficking specialists.

He said the four suspects were detained and would face court this week.

Cambodia last year introduced legislation to ban the trade in oil from the sassafras plant, which was being illicitly exported to Vietnam and Thailand.