The defunct travel firm at the Phnom Penh Hotel that the Interior Ministry alleges was operated by an international drug trafficker stood empty Thursday, with little to suggest its controversial manager’s former activities other than three stickers on the door advertising airline firms.
Staff in neighboring offices said they were unaware of Wong Moon Chi’s alleged operations and had not realized anything was amiss until police came last week and confiscated everything inside the Cam Tour office, from the tables and a computer to the dustbin.
“Police didn’t say what was happening,” said one man who manages an office in the same corridor. “If they’re really drug dealers, that makes me scared.”
Wong, 44, was arrested in Phnom Penh on Dec 8 and deported to Hong Kong Monday, police said.
Police said they arrested him in the street but did not specify where.
He is accused of trafficking heroin, amphetamines and marijuana around the world, and of using Cambodia as a transit point.
Chhay Sinarith, director of the Interior Ministry’s Information Department, said Wednesday that Wong had been operating Cam Tour while in Cambodia.
Neighbors did not recall seeing Wong at the office, which they said was staffed by several women.
The hotel plans to implement a better monitoring system to prevent alleged criminals from using office space, said one hotel official who asked not to be identified.
William Wong, the hotel’s general manager, said the suspect had never been associated with the hotel in any way.
Although William Wong confirmed that police visited the Cam Tour office, he said they had not explained their actions.
He added that the office had not been leased in Wong Moon Chi’s name but to a man who he identified only as “Mr Lou.”
“[Wong Moon Chi] is new to us,” William Wong said. “We don’t even know him.”
