Eight Arrested in Ratanakkiri Crackdown

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Saturday, 23 January 2016

 

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Ratanakiri police arrested eight men on Wednesday, in three separate cases related to using and dealing drugs near the provincial capital, Ban Lung. Ong Sopheap, Ratanakkiri’s head of the Drug Enforcement Police, says that they’d been following two of the cases for quite some time, in an effort to crack down on drug use in the province. The third case had a quicker turnover, after police found and investigated a package of methamphetamines sent up by car from Phnom Penh.

The first two cases involved four men using and selling yama near Boeung Keun Saing, a popular recreation area with a number of restaurants in the center of town. In the first, a man renting a room by the lake was caught with drugs in his room. In the second, a previous offender was caught by the lake with a small amount of yama; the two men that were with him were then tested and found to have been using, as well.  

In the third case, two men, ages 19 and 21, were apprehended with methamphetamine in a Tampoun village, Lapho, seven kilometers from the capital, near Boeung Yeak Laom. A partner in Phnom Penh had sent them the drugs. The two men are Khmer, but had lived in Lapho for a time and built houses there.

“They were selling some of the meth, and using it, as well,” says Mr. Sopheap. He adds that it’s a popular drug in clubs around the capital. 

Bun Thien, the village chief of Lapho, says that educational efforts and hard work from the police have made the drug problem among indigenous village youth lighter than before. However, he says, there are still a number of young men who use drugs in the village.

“They’re sold by Khmer, mostly,” he affirmed. “Tampoun don’t have ways to sell drugs.”

The drugs, say the police, all came from Phnom Penh, rather than directly from Laos via Stung Treng.  Trial dates have not yet been set, as the court is still investigating. “Our goal is to destroy drug use in this country,” says Chey Mealeas, Vice President of Ratanakkiri Court.

The eight await trial in the provincial prison.