Phnom Penh: Cambodia’s crackdown on drugs is working. By the beginning of October, authorities said they’d already detained 9,828 drug-related suspects over the first nine months of this year. That’s down 37% year-on-year. In the past week, over a span of just three days, Preah Sihanouk Provincial Police were active in the crackdown and arrest of four Chinese nationals for drug related crimes, while in Phnom Penh, a Nigerian national is also in custody.

Preah Sihanouk Provincial Police Commissioner, Major General Chuon Narin, has confirmed that the province’s Anti-Drug Task Force coordinated with the Deputy Prosecutor of the Provincial Court, in arresting the four Chinese nationals. They were allegedly caught with ICE, yaba tablets, ketamine and ecstasy.

In Phnom Penh, according to the National Police General Commission of the Department of Anti-Drug Crimes, Special Forces arrested a Nigerian national on Sunday, allegedly with 500 grams of ICE.

Cambodia has a strict policy about drug taking and trafficking in the Kingdom. On Monday, a Belgian national launched an appeal against his life sentence handed down by the Phnom Penh Municipal Court for drug trafficking. The 34-year-old Belgian, initially sentenced in absentia in 2018 until he was caught, was charged with drug trafficking at Phnom Penh International Airport back in January 2018.