A woman was arrested Tuesday for attempting to smuggle drugs into Phnom Penh’s Prey Sar prison for her incarcerated son by hiding them in a bottle of lotion, a police official said yesterday.
According to Dangkao district police chief Yim Socheat, guards at the maximum-security prison arrested Kong Sokhom, 57, after finding 11 small packages of crystal methamphetamine in the bottle.
“The suspect was arrested when the guards stirred the lotion and saw the drugs,” he said, adding that Ms. Sokhom claimed the bottle was given to her by her son’s friend. Mr. Socheat said he could not recall the total weight of the confiscated methamphetamine.
He said Ms. Sokhom was being held at the district police station and would appear in court today.
Ms. Sokhom is at least the fourth person caught attempting to smuggle drugs into a prison in 2015.
According to Kuy Bunsorn, director of the Interior Ministry’s general department of prisons, prison guards across the country were instructed at the beginning of the year to more carefully inspect food and other items being passed to inmates.
“The number of people arrested for smuggling drugs into prisons is high because of our new plan,” he said.
