July 19, 2019
Two foreigners tried over drug charges
Phnom Penh Municipal Court yesterday tried two Vietnamese women for transporting nearly one kilogram of methamphetamine from Cambodia to Australia via a shipping company in the capital.

Presiding Judge Kov Sao identified them as Chan Dara, 27, who worked with Gaza Club in Daun Penh district, and her mother-in-law, 55-year-old Tam Hiu Ting. They were both charged with drug transporting and face between 20 and 30 years each in jail if convicted.

Judge Sao said the accused were arrested by the Interior Ministry’s Anti-Drug Police Department on October 15 last year in Chamkar Mon district.

He noted that at about 4pm that day, staff working with shipping company DHL in Sen Sok district’s Toek Thla commune seized a suspicious package containing a toy bear from the two Vietnamese women who intended to send it to Australia.

Judge Sao stated that after inspecting the item, the staff found a large package containing white powder hidden inside the toy bear. The staff soon alerted an undercover anti-drug trafficking police officer stationed at the company, who immediately inspected the package and identified the white powder as methamphetamine.

Police forces, in collaboration with the prosecutor of the municipal court, later arrested Ms Dara and Ms Ting in their rental house in Chamkar Mon district’s Boeng Tompon commune.

“They were arrested for sending almost one kilogram of drugs to Australia via DHL company in Phnom Penh,” Judge Sao said. “Following the arrest, police seized a large package of methamphetamine weighing 961.90 grams from them.”

During yesterday’s trial, Ms Dara admitted committing the offence. However, she also told the court that the drugs seized did not belong to her, but to a Vietnamese man named Hai.

Ms Dara said that on the day of her arrest, she was asked by Mr Hai, who was her friend and who worked with her at Gaza Club, to send the toy bear to his friend in Australia via DHL. She then took a taxi to carry the box to a DHL branch located in Toek Thla commune.

Ms Dara said she did not know about the drugs, and only found out after she was arrested, when police showed it to her.
https://www.khmertimeskh.com/50625405/t ... g-charges/