Cambodia burns 1.56 TONNES of marijuana, meth and heroin to celebrate International Day against Drugs
Deputy PM, Kim Yan, watched the bonfire at Boeung Trabek High School burn nearly two tonnes of illegal drugs
SEIZED drugs worth millions are burned by cops, watched by spectators in face masks at a public ceremony in Cambodia yesterday.
The scene in Phnom Penh saw nearly two tonnes of heroin, amphetamines and marijuana destroyed to mark International Day Against Drugs.
Deputy Prime Minister and president of the National Authority on Combating Drugs (NACD), Mr Kim Yan, overlooked the bonfire which burned a massive 1,909kg of drugs at Boeung Trabek High School.
He said: “Cambodia is still getting shocking reports on drugs.
"Even though Cambodia is not a drug-producing country, because of the influence of drug production and trafficking in the world and region and her geography near the Golden Triangle, wicked people have tried to find ways to use the geography for trafficking, transporting, stocking and modifying drugs for export through Cambodia to third countries.”
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The Golden Triangle is an area the overlaps Laos, Myanmar and Thailand and is well known for the production of illegal drugs.
A report from the NACD confirmed that all destroyed substances were seized and used in evidence in three large Phnom Penh Municipal Court cases.
The drugs set on fire included 1.49 tonnes of dry marijuana, 1.5kg of marijuana oil, 67.4kg of methamphetamine and 0.34kg of heroin.
Despite criticism of Cambodia's apparent lax attitude to major drug crimes Mr Yan argued that 54 cases of cross-border drug-trafficking had been addressed last year alone, with hundreds of kilograms of drugs seized from more than 4,000 groups of suspects.
Prime Minister Hun Sen did not attend the symbolic fire but Information Minister Khieu Kanharith spoke on his behalf.
He said: "If drug problems happen in any community, the people who have the ability to deal with them more effectively are the community members and local authorities in charge of that community."
According to the NACD, Cambodia has about 16,575 drug addicts with around 7,753 of them receiving treatment to quit their habit.
