Crime and law enforcement

Police destroyed more than 60,000 marijuana plants spread across 3 hectares of land in a well-known Takeo province hotspot for growing the illegal crop, officials said on Tuesday. ...

Thai police have arrested a fourth suspect in the weapons smuggling case linked to a Cambodian immigration officer, according to Thai media, while a senior Cambodian Defence Ministry official said yesterday that any suggestions that the weapons came from Cambodia’s military arsenal had been ruled ...

Thirty-one Chinese nationals were arrested in three districts of Phnom Penh on Monday in the latest police crackdown on alleged fraudsters accused of operating a scam using Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), according to a police report supplied by an immigration official. ...

The Ministry of Interior has set up a working group to oversee the elimination of illegal checkpoints along national roads and on waterways. According to a statement penned by Interior Minister Sar Kheng last Wednesday and obtained yesterday, the working group is comprised of eight ...

Police in Phnom Penh will next month start issuing fines of up to $25 for violations of parking regulations by using handheld devices that scan license plates and recognize the registered identity and address of a vehicle’s owner, an official said yesterday. ...

The Interior Ministry’s Central Security Department yesterday announced two hotlines for the public to report possible kidnappings after a spike in Facebook comments about parents losing their children. According to a statement issued yesterday, the purpose of the hotlines is to assist authorities with locating ...

The Mondolkiri Provincial Court this morning sentenced Dutch man Stefan Struik, 53, to two years in prison for helping his Vietnamese boyfriend, Nguyen Thanh Dung, 34, flee the country after videos of Mr. Nguyen torturing a 2-year-old Cambodian boy were posted on Facebook. ...

The Mondulkiri Provincial Court and mines and energy officials said they are investigating illegal sand exports to Vietnam following the questioning of four people who were intercepted yesterday by authorities driving truckloads of sand toward the eastern border. ...

A large rock smashed through the side window of a car that had just dropped off members of the Independent Monk Network for Social Justice in Kandal province on Tuesday night, the group’s leader But Buntenh said on Wednesday. ...

A draft United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) report released at a workshop on Monday praises efforts to crack down on sexual abuse of children but calls for measures to curb child pornography.​​ ...

Surveillance cameras set up throughout the capital will be synchronized and monitored nonstop from a central control room as part of a coordinated crimewatch effort between City Hall and the National Police, officials said on Tuesday. ...

Operations against human trafficking networks increased by a whopping 127 percent compared to the same period in 2016, according to a six-month report released yesterday by the National Committee for Counter Trafficking (NCCT). ...

The Cambodian embassy in Malaysia has repatriated 14 Cambodian fishermen who fled a Thai boat and are believed to be human trafficking victims, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.​​ ...

Child sex tourism is continuing to damage the lives of young Cambodians, while the internet is enabling perpetrators to carry out abuse, the Justice Minister has warned.​ ...

A petrol tanker truck was found with more than 2,000 pieces of luxury rosewood stashed inside its tank when it was intercepted by authorities in Phnom Penh last week, National Military Police spokesman Eng Hy said yesterday. ...

The Cambodia Royal Gendarmerie and Kratie provincial military police yesterday concluded a crackdown on a known timber smuggling route in Sambour district, confiscating nearly 100 pieces of wood equivalent to about 40 cubic metres. ...

Anti-economic crime police from the Interior Ministry yesterday seized more than four tonnes of illegal medicine in Phnom Penh’s Sen Sok district.​ ...

Nearly 15,000 marijuana plants were destroyed in Takeo province’s Kirivong district on Wednesday evening, in the second such crackdown this week.​ ...

Two village officials from Oddar Meanchey province filed complaints on Friday against one-star General Duong Sina, accusing him of using violence against them and two other villagers, though Military Police yesterday said the general appeared to have fled. ...

The number of traffic accidents and fatalities increased marginally during the first six months of this year compared to the same period last year, though the number of injuries dropped. ...

Two police officials – one the deputy police chief of Kandal’s Takhmao town and the son of Provincial Police Chief Eav Chamroeun – are the subject of a complaint filed with the Ministry of Interior by three people who allege they might have colluded to ...

The Phnom Penh Municipal Court yesterday sentenced a Vietnamese  businesswoman, who stormed a forestry office to steal her seized timber, to two years imprisonment and a fine of $12,500. ...

Interior Minister Sar Kheng has vowed an investigation into an alleged arms trafficking operation linked to a Cambodian official, saying information from suspects indicated the guns were smuggled via a “corridor” in Cambodia’s Koh Kong province into Thailand and did not pass through the international ...

Twenty-four inmates in Kampong Speu’s provincial prison – where five prisoners escaped earlier this week – are reportedly experiencing a combination of respiratory difficulties, coughing, skin rashes and swollen legs.   ...