Drugs Busts Up in First 5 Months

PHNOM PENH, June 1 (Xinhua) — Cambodian authorities had arrested 6,909 drug-related suspects in the first five months of 2019, up 8.5 percent over the same period last year, said an Interior Ministry’s anti-drug department report on Saturday.

About 140 suspects, including 31 women, in this year’s drug arrests are foreigners in seven nationalities, the report said.

The authorities had cracked down on 3,264 cases involving illicit drugs during the January-May period this year, up 2.2 percent over the same period last year, it added.

According to the report, about 298 kilograms of drugs and 823 other small packs of drugs were seized in the first five months of this year, up from only 100 kilograms confiscated over the same period last year.

The Southeast Asian nation has no death sentence for illicit drug traffickers. Under its law, someone found guilty of trafficking more than 80 grams of illicit drug will be jailed for life.