CAMBODIA: DRUG SEIZURES AND ARRESTS UP

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 PHNOM PENH 000983

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE
SIPDIS

STATE FOR EAP/MLS, INL/AAE--PETER PRAHAR AND YANTI KAPOYOS,
INL/C--GREG STANTON

E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/23/2016
TAGS: SNAR PGOV CB TW
SUBJECT: CAMBODIA: DRUG SEIZURES AND ARRESTS UP


1. (U) SUMMARY: May 19 and 20 arrests of two Taiwanese
nationals attempting to smuggle a total of nearly 7 kg of
heroin to Taiwan highlight increased drug arrests and
seizures in Cambodia. The quantity of heroin seized during
the weekend airport busts is large by Cambodian
standards--authorities seized just 11 kg of heroin in 2005.
Seizures of amphetamine-type stimulants are more than double
last year's levels. Police and international observers
credit USG and other foreign training with providing skills,
motivation, and international pressure for the increase, but
say that narcotics trafficking may also be on the rise. END
SUMMARY.

Heroin Seizures at Phnom Penh International Airport
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2. (U) Police and customs officials seized nearly 7 kg of
heroin and arrested three Taiwanese nationals in two separate
incidents at Phnom Penh International Airport on May 19 and

20. These two cases represent an impressive intake for one
weekend given that in 2005 Cambodian authorities seized just
over 11 kg of heroin.


3. (SBU) Chen Hsin Hung, 57, was arrested on May 19 carrying
4.75 kg of heroin with a local street value of USD 95,000 to
133,000. Customs officials became suspicious when they
noticed that Hung was carrying several bags of imported
Taiwanese foil-wrapped candies back to Taiwan in his hand
luggage. The candies turned out to be foil-wrapped packages
of heroin. Hung, who was due to travel to Taiwan via Kuala
Lumpur on Malaysian Airlines flight 755, had arrived in Phnom
Penh the previous day. During his police interrogation, Hung
said that he had been picked up at the airport and returned
to the airport by a couple, whom the police identified as a
Cambodian woman and a mainland Chinese or Taiwanese man.
Police are attempting to locate the couple.


4. (SBU) A second Taiwanese man, who was standing near Chen
Hsin Hung during the security process, appeared to be quite
interested in the proceedings and upset by Hung's arrest, and
had tickets for the same flight as Hung, was also arrested on
suspicion of drug trafficking. Moek Dara noted that the
investigation had revealed no evidence to indicate that the
second individual was also involved in drug smuggling, but
that it was the prosecutor's decision how to proceed in the
case.


5. (SBU) On May 20, a 90-year-old Taiwanese national named
Huang Sang Hou was arrested at Phnom Penh International
Airport with 1.9 kg of heroin, worth USD 38,000 to USD
53,000. Hou reportedly came to Cambodia as a tourist
intending to gamble. Over the course of a week, he lost the
USD 4,000 he brought with him, borrowed an additional USD
2,000 from a Taiwanese national in Phnom Penh, and then lost
that money as well. The Taiwanese lender then persuaded Hou
to carry the heroin back to Taiwan. Airport customs
officials were tipped off by the sloppy manner in which the
heroin was packed on Hou's body, making him appear bloated.
Hou cooperated with the police in identifying the Taiwanese
lender, and Cambodian government officials have already
passed his name, address, and passport information to the
Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). Hou had been planning
to fly Dragon Airlines flight 207 to Hong Kong, and then to
continue on to Taiwan.

Amphetamine Seizures, Prices on the Rise
--------------


6. (SBU) According to statistics from the Ministry of
Interior's Anti-Drug Police and the National Authority for
Combating Drugs (NACD),seizures of amphetamine-type
stimulant (ATS) tablets more than doubled when comparing the
first four months of 2006 with the first four months of 2005.
From January to April 2006, more than 220,000 ATS tablets
were seized, whereas from January to April 2005,
approximately 87,000 ATS tablets were seized. The number of
offenders arrested also rose from 154 from January to April
2005 to 204 during January to April 2006.


7. (U) Both Brigadier General Moek Dara, Director of the
Anti-Drugs Department, and World Health Organization
Technical Advisor Graham Shaw noted that prices for ATS
tablets have risen in the past few years, with particularly
dramatic increases in the past 12 months. One year ago, a
single ATS tablet sold for approximately one dollar in Phnom
Penh, but now costs two to three dollars. Moek Dara noted
that prices rise as the ATS tablets make their way along the
drug route, from fifty cents per tablet in Laos, where the

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majority are produced, to USD 3 in Cambodia, and then even
higher prices in two destination countries: USD 4 in Vietnam
and USD 7.50 in Thailand. Shaw cited anecdotal evidence from
NGOs that some ATS users are switching to injecting heroin,
currently available for USD 1.50 to 2 in Phnom Penh, as a
cheaper alternative to rising ATS prices.

Lower Ecstasy Seizures Likely Point to Disrupted Network
-------------- --------------


8. (U) In contrast to the dramatic rise in ATS seizures,
seizures of ecstasy tablets are down sharply, from 1,900 in
January to April 2005 to less than 800 in January to April

2006. Moek Dara and Shaw believe that lower levels of
ecstasy seizures are a sign that supply has been disrupted
following a cooperative DEA/Anti-Drug Police controlled
delivery operation against the Peter Brown drug ring in 2004
and continued Anti-Drug Police action against the ring in

2005.

USG Training Provides Needed Skills, International Pressure
-------------- --------------


9. (SBU) Moek Dara gave much of the credit for the dramatic
increase in heroin and ATS seizures and drug arrests to
counternarcotics training funded by the State Department's
Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs
(INL) and conducted by the DEA. Before the training
sessions, which were conducted in January and April 2006,
police officers along Cambodia's porous northern border were
not very active and would not even conduct foot patrols in
the forest, according to Moek Dara. Now, however, the
officers have more skills and are more motivated to patrol
actively, he said, and have seized drugs and a lot of drug
production equipment as well. Customs, immigration, and
police officials at the airports are also better trained and
more active, and Moek Dara noted that all of the officials
involved in the weekend's airport arrests had completed DEA
training.


10. (C) Shaw gave partial credit for increased anti-drug
activity to counternarcotics training by the US and other
foreign donors. Some high-ranking Cambodian police and
military officials are rumored to be complicit in narcotics
trafficking, he noted. He speculated that the training and
pressure on the Cambodian government to clamp down on drug
activity has finally made an impression on higher ranking
officials, and lower-level officers are "being allowed" to
make more seizures. At the same time, such a dramatic
increase is probably also an indication of efforts to traffic
increased amounts of ATS through Cambodia, he opined.

Trainees Enthusiastic about INL/DEA Courses
--------------


11. (U) Provincial Anti-Drug Police officers who attended
the January Basic Counternarcotics course reported uniformly
enthusiastic assessments to an embassy follow-up survey.
Participating police captains reported an increased awareness
of drug smuggling tactics, best practices in seizing and
preparing evidence, and how to identify drugs using field
test kits. Captain Preap Sovann of the Svay Rieng Anti-Drug
Police noted that the training also promoted inter-agency and
inter-province cooperation as well. All captains reported
training their staffs in the key topics covered by the DEA
training, and captains in Koh Kong and Pursat provinces
reported conducting anti-drug outreach to primary and
secondary school students as well. Trainees suggested that
future courses provide written materials in Khmer as well as
English, include information on money laundering, have more
laboratory equipment available for in-class practice in drug
identification, and include more time in simulations.

Police Officer Arrested on Drug Charges
--------------


11. (C) Nov Sophal, a municipal police officer in the
southern city of Kep, was arrested on April 15 and charged
with trafficking 1 kg of heroin. Moek Dara was not expansive
when asked about the case, noting simply that it is not
uncommon for low-ranking police and military officials to be
arrested for drug trafficking. In contrast, Shaw noted that
drug investigations of police or military officials are very
rare, and speculated that the individual involved may even
have run afoul of rumored higher-level police involvement in
narcotics.


12. (SBU) COMMENT: While increased smuggling activity may

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account for some of the increased seizures and arrests, it is
clear that the Cambodian government is turning up the heat on
the country's drug smugglers. Training from the USG and
other countries is playing a critical role in supporting this
effort--both through the skills and enthusiasm imparted to
the participants, and also through the implicit expectations
of improved performance on the part of the police and other
officials.
STORELLA