Cambodian army officials denied on Wednesday reports that a cache of weapons seized in northeastern Thailand originated in Cambodia and were destined for drug lords in Laos.
AK-47 and M-16 rifles, handguns, 30,000 bullets, rockets and 34 Claymore mines were discovered packed in wooden crates in a pickup truck in Udon Thani province on Monday night.
Thai Highway Police Commander Somkid Boonthanom told Agence France-Presse on Tuesday the weapons came from Cambodia and were part of a guns-for-drugs deal.
“The weapons would be traded for amphetamines which…would double their value,” Somkid told AFP. “They were being illegally smuggled from Cambodia to Laos via Thailand.”
Two men escaped after police stopped the vehicle carrying the haul, estimated to be worth some $120,000, Somkid said.
However, an RCAF official from Preah Vihear who saw television news reports on the bust said the weapons appeared to be new and US-made, which largely ruled out a Cambodian origin.
“There are no new guns in Cambodia. I believe those weapons were not made in communist countries…Cambodian guns are made in China and Russia,” the official said.
RCAF Deputy Army Commander Chea Saran said the claims were not credible.
“The Thai accusations against Cambodia are completely wrong,” Chea Saran said. “Even the former Khmer Rouge troops do not have those weapons.”
The Nation newspaper said on Wednesday the weapons may have come from the Royal Thai Army and were destined for the southern coastal town of Chonburi.
All the weapons were new and some bore Thai-language instructions, local ordnance officials told the newspaper.
The officials said they would know Wednesday if the weapons had belonged to the Thai military.
Cambodia and Laos have increasingly been linked as a regional drug trafficking route since Thai military operations began earlier this year to seal Thailand off as drug route out of the notorious Golden Triangle drug producing region.
Cambodian anti-drug officials claim heroin and amphetamines hauls are being smuggled through southern Laos and into northeastern Cambodia where they are then smuggled into Thailand or down the Mekong River.
