‘Traffickers’ were hiding drugs in ducks, cops say

Police officers detain two suspected drug traffickers following a shootout last week in Phnom Penh. Photo supplied

‘Traffickers’ were hiding drugs in ducks, cops say

Tue, 3 May 2016 ppp

Bun Sengkong

Five suspects involved in a shootout with police last Wednesday that left an officer and a suspect dead were officially charged yesterday by an investigating judge, according to Ly Sophanna, Phnom Penh Municipal Court spokesman.

Sophanna declined to specify the charges, but was quoted in local media as saying the charges were for trafficking drugs, conspiring with criminals and possessing illegal weapons.

The name of the dead suspect was made public in a report on the Royal Gendarmerie of Cambodia’s website on Sunday. Lim Kim Teng was identified as the ringleader, who had recently served a one-year sentence at Prey Sar prison for drug trafficking.

When he was released in April 2014, he allegedly continued his old profession, but was more sophisticated, using a fried duck business as a front for drug trafficking, according to the report.

“The authorities’ research concluded that they trafficked drugs from one place to another, inserting them inside fried ducks,” the report reads.

During his time in prison, Kim Teng met Ly Virak, one of the five suspects charged yesterday, who at the time was in prison for stealing necklaces.

The other four suspects include Lim Kok Huy, who is Kim Teng’s uncle; Ty Eang, who is Kim Teng’s brother-in-law; and two accomplices, Sun Dara and Trav Rithdara. Virak was the only one not charged with possession of illegal weapons.

Tien Karona, an officer from the military police’s Phnom Penh unit, was fatally wounded during the raid on the Tuol Kork property.