VZCZCXRO4127
PP RUEHCHI RUEHDT RUEHHM RUEHNH
DE RUEHPF #0983/01 1431149
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
P 231149Z MAY 06
FM AMEMBASSY PHNOM PENH
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 6729
INFO RUCNASE/ASEAN MEMBER COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
RUEHIN/AIT TAIPEI PRIORITY 0185

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 
--------------------------------------------- ------- 
 
¶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 
 
PHNOM PENH 00000983  002 OF 003 
 
 
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 
 
PHNOM PENH 00000983  003 OF 003 
 
 
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