A Taiwanese national was arrested at Phnom Penh International Airport on Friday morning, accused of concealing 2.2 kg of heroin under his clothes, police and airport officials said Monday.
The 25-year-old man was arrested while attempting to board a flight to Taiwan, airport police Chief Chay Bunna said.
He was transferred to the custody of the Interior Ministry’s Anti-Drug Department and will be arraigned today, Deputy Anti-Drug Police Chief Long Vicheat said.
Another anti-drug official who spoke on the condition of anonymity said that the suspect confessed to buying the heroin in Phnom Penh.
“We hope Cambodia will throw the book at [the suspect] as a deterrent to others trying the same thing,” said Graham Shaw of the US Office on Drugs and Crime.
Commenting on the spate of Taiwanese nationals caught attempting to export small amounts of heroin through Phnom Penh International Airport in recent years, Shaw said that the suspect is likely a courier working for a larger network.
“As a layperson it strikes me that [there is] some kind of organized trafficking activity linking Cambodia to Taiwan. There’s something going on, but we don’t know what it is,” he said.
