Three people were provisionally charged by the Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Sunday for smuggling 1 kg of heroin, police said, as officers continued searching for a Vietnamese couple they believe to be the ringleaders of the operation.
Sen Say, 45, and Ding Minhour, 30, a Vietnamese national, were arrested at 12:30 p.m. on Thursday in Chbar Ampov district after police were tipped off and chased the vehicle they were riding in, according to Van Kosal, deputy chief of the Interior Ministry’s anti-drug police department.
The driver of the car stopped and forced the two men to get out, at which point police arrested them as the driver continued on before abandoning the vehicle on the roadside, he said.
Thun Ty, 45, was arrested later that day at the home where the two men lived, he added.
“We are focusing on arresting a Vietnamese couple who are very active in heroin smuggling from Laos through Cambodia and into Vietnam,” said Meak Bunthol, deputy chief of intervention in the anti-drug police department.
He said that prosecutors had provisionally charged the trio with drug smuggling.
