Phnom Penh police arrested 32 men in a raid on a notorious drug hot spot in Sen Sok district’s Toek Thla commune on Thursday, according to local police.
More than 20 local and municipal police officers surrounded the ramshackle Trapaing Chhouk village in the late morning, then spent about four hours checking the village for drugs and making arrests, commune police chief Sok Sophal said.
“We started at 11 a.m. in the morning and stayed until 3 p.m.,” Mr. Sophal said, adding that authorities had confiscated small amounts of methamphetamine.
Mr. Sophal said the raid was difficult to carry out because the village is built over a pond, which drug offenders frequently jump into in order to escape.
“It took a long time to find them because some of them hid in the water,” Mr. Sophal said.
“We missed a lot too; there could have been more arrests if it wasn’t for the water.”
The men, aged 20 to 30, are being detained at the Phnom Penh municipal police station for questioning. Mr. Sophal said police would continue to conduct frequent raids on the village.
