Cross-border sting nets 4kg of drugs

Lao national Kham Saiyavongsa is pictured with more than 4 kilograms of drugs with which he was apprehended during a cross-border sting operation on Friday. Photo supplied

Cross-border sting nets 4kg of drugs

ppp Mon, 28 March 2016

Bun Sengkong

A sting operation by Cambodian anti-drug police in Stung Treng netted more than 4 kilograms of drugs worth over $100,000, according to Interior Ministry official Yin Panharith.

Cambodian police lured Lao national Kham Saiyavongsa, 46, across the border into Stung Treng’s Samaki district with a dummy drug deal on Friday night following a tip from Lao border police, Panharith said yesterday.

Saiyavongsa entered Cambodia in his Toyota pickup truck on a tourist visa. Meanwhile, two of his associates brought 2 kilograms of crystal meth and 2.1 kilograms of heroin through the porous forest border.

An undercover Cambodian police officer joined Saiyavongsa in the car and asked him to summon his two associates with the drugs. The police attempted to arrest all three during the drop off, but the two drug mules fled and remained at large yesterday evening.

In early February, Cambodian border police tipped off their counterparts in Laos, leading to the arrest of five Lao nationals they had been attempting to entice across the border for some time with $100,000 worth of methamphetamine pills.

Neak Yutha, deputy secretary general of the National Authority for Combating Drugs, said the majority of heroin entering Cambodia was usually in transit to a third country.

Crystal meth, however, was usually destined for Phnom Penh, where it was popular with garment workers and female entertainment workers for its stimulant and appetite suppressant effects, Yutha said.