Military police raided a drug den in Phnom Penh’s Sen Sok district on Saturday night and arrested 11 people for using and possibly distributing crystal methamphetamine, local officials said.
The bust was just the latest attempt to flush drug users from the crude house, which stands on stilts in a meter of fetid water on the edge of a drainage pond in Toek Thla commune, commune chief Tann Navin said Sunday.
“At least 50 users have been arrested [at the house] this month. Some were sent to jail and others who were released have come back again,” he said.
In 2008, a huge fire displaced hundred of families from the area, but makeshift structures were subsequently erected in and around the drainage pond. Mr. Navin said the house occupied by the drug users is difficult to access.
By the time police reached it Saturday, several people had already escaped into the pond through a hole in the floor, while those who remained threw their drugs into the water, he said, adding that no evidence was recovered at the scene and that police have not identified the owner of the property.
Bann Sopheap, head of the military police’s municipal anti-drug department, said those arrested, including one woman, were all between the ages of 18 and 25.
“They are all users and some of them are likely distributors, but the dealer was not there,” he said.
