Cambodian Police Raid Marijuana Plantation
Police torched a marijuana plantation Saturday in southwestern Cambodia in a demonstration of their new willingness to stamp out the impoverished country’s growing drug trade.
Officers from the National Authority for Combating Drugs flew by helicopter to the rugged and remote location, where they took reporters around a 17.3-acre field.
The police then stacked the plants into piles and set them ablaze.
“Cambodia is being transformed into a place to plant marijuana for export to the outside world,” said Gen. Khieu Sopheak, deputy secretary general of the anti-drug authority. “We need help, we need assistance.”
The anti-drug authority is trying to convince international donors--especially the U.S.--that it is serious about battling drug smugglers.
The sincerity of the raid, however, was hard to gauge. The commanding officer of the operation said his troops found the plantation deserted because workers had been tipped off to the raid.
During a visit Thursday by a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration official, Cambodia asked for an increase in anti-drug assistance and urged the DEA to station an agent in Phnom Penh, the capital.
Most of Cambodia’s marijuana is grown in the southwestern part of the country, especially near the Thai border where Khmer Rouge guerrillas and the Cambodian army fought a low-level war for nearly two decades.
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