PHNOM PENH: The 2024 campaign against illegal drugs is the ninth campaign aimed at turning Cambodia into a drug-free country as drug epidemics continue to spread both regionally and globally.

Since the first anti-drug campaign in 2016, Cambodia has received support and cooperation from national and international circles in the fight against drug crimes and money laundering offenses related to drugs. In 2023, its was upgraded from the FATF grey list which rates countries based on their ability to combat money laundering.

According to the Prime Minister Hun Manet, from 2017 to 2023, police cracked down on more than 50,000 drug offenses, arrested more than 120,000 suspects, and collected nearly 28,000 kilograms of drugs and 520,000 kilograms of chemical compounds.

He said the police arrested 164 ringleaders and 811 drug dealing factions who were sent to court and punished according to law.

For the 2024 anti-drug campaign, the Royal Government urges the relevant ministries and authorities to continue to educate the public and raise awareness about the dangers of drugs, to work hard to strengthen cooperation in research and suppression of drug offenses, synthetic drug processing, cultivation, refining and import of raw materials such as chemical compounds that produce drugs.

He said that there must be bilateral and multilateral cooperation with neighboring countries and key international organizations to exchange information in order to infiltrate the plans of drug criminals in order to take timely repressive measures.

The Royal Government has introduced awards for organizations and individuals who have done well to prevent and suppress of drug use and trafficking, in addition to cracking down on officials involved in drug crimes.

Recently, several officials from the Ministry of Interior were fired for drug possession and related drug offenses. At the same time, the administration has removed and demoted several police officers for misconduct.