Cambodia has signed up to an initiative to tackle apparently soaring drug production and trafficking in the six Greater Mekong countries.
A Cambodian delegation last week met with officials from China, Burma, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam and the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) in Burma’s capital, Naypyidaw.
A statement Thursday from the UNODC said the five states and the agency had signed “an agreement committing them to strengthen cross-border cooperation in law enforcement, [drug] demand reduction and alternative development [to drug production].”
John Sandage, UNODC Director of Treaty Affairs, was quoted in the statement praising the countries’ cooperation over the past two decades.
However, he said, “Major challenges persist: The resurgence of opium poppy cultivation, the dramatic spread of amphetamine-type stimulants (ATS), the influx of drugs new to the region and increased levels of addiction.”
The UNODC said in a December report that international criminal groups use Cambodia as both a site for the production of ATS and a transit country for a number of other kinds of drugs.
“Large amounts of methamphetamine (in pill and crystalline form) and heroin manufactured in the Golden Triangle are smuggled into Cambodia from Laos PRD,” the report says.
More than 20 kg of methamphetamine, 30 kg of heroin and 40 kg of cocaine—a record for Cambodia—were seized by police in 2012, according to the National Authority for Combating Drugs (NACD).
Meas Vyrith, NACD deputy secretary, who attended the meeting last week, said it was particularly important to cooperate with neighboring countries to monitor drug trafficking along Cambodia’s borders.
“This MOU [memorandum of understanding] is important for working together to combat drug trafficking and drug production, exchanging information and giving mutual legal assistance,” he added.
