Tuesday, 04 September 2012
Buth Reaksmey Kongkea
Phnom Penh Post
The Naga casino boat drug bust at the centre of the corruption
convictions of disgraced anti-drugs czar Moek Dara and his one-time
deputy Chea Leng hit the Court of Appeal yesterday, with the busted
convicts in the Naga boat case blaming each other and accomplices for
the crimes.
Suth Romanea (top) and Lim
Hay (below)
In 2008, Leng led a team of undercover cops to crack down on the Naga casino ship in Phnom Penh’s Chamkarmorn district.
Lim
Hay, 36, and Suth Romanea, 33, who were in court yesterday, were busted
for trafficking heroin that Leng is now convicted of siphoning off and
selling in a separate case.
Hay and Romanea were sentenced to 10
years in prison and fined 25 million riel [about US$6250] for intent to
traffic two kilograms of heroin.
“The suspects were arrested
while they were selling the heroin to the police agents, who had
disguised themselves as drug buyers at the Naga ship in Phnom Penh,”
presiding judge Pak Chansambo said yesterday.
“After their
arrest, police seized three big packages of drugs totalling about two
kilograms of heroin, along with a car, from them.”
The confiscation of the car and a further haul of about four kilograms
of heroin are the subject of corruption charges against Leng, who
siphoned off the property, and Dara, who approved Leng’s paperwork.
Although
Romanea accepted she had participated in a criminal act, she protested
that she was a low-level accomplice and that the primary heroin
trafficker, a woman from Stung Treng province, had escaped the clutches
of the law.
Hay opposed his conviction, claiming that he was
nothing more than a go-to guy and had no knowledge his car was being
used to transport drugs.
The verdicts will be handed down on September 20.
The appeal hearing of 25 criminal cases against Dara and Leng will continue tomorrow, after a week-long adjournment.
To contact the reporter on this story: Buth Reaksmey Kongkea at reaksmeykongkea.buth@phnompenhpost.com
3 comments:
If you're not becareful Yuon will sell your kids drugs make all khmers addicted than they took all land.Remember opuim's war? Beware of these drugs will destroy the fabric of our society.
Who are these thugs? Do they look youns or chinese?
What's about Hun To the drug lord in 21st century in kampuchea today? Don't you arrest him? Oh,he above the law right?
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