Thursday, 30 December 2010

Cambodian police drugs haul nets 7 million flu pills

via CAAI

2010-12-29

PHNOM PENH, Tuesday 28 December 2010 (AFP) - Cambodian police on Tuesday said they had seized nearly 7 million flu tablets that could be used to make illegal drugs and arrested seven people in a large raid in the capital.

The pills, which had been imported into the kingdom without a licence, contain the ingredient pseudoephedrine, a decongestant and stimulant in wide use around the world.

National police spokesman Kirt Chantharith told AFP unlicensed importation of the pills was illegal and the pseudoephedrine could be chemically altered to produce methamphetamine.

The amounts seized were enough to produce around 400 kilograms of the drug, he said.

Six men and one woman were arrested after a police raid on two houses in Phnom Penh on Monday night.

The operation comes after police netted nearly 13 million flu tablets containing the same ingredient at a warehouse near the northeastern border with Thailand in August, in the country's largest-ever bust of smuggled medicine.

Cambodia has become a popular trafficking point for narcotics, particularly methamphetamines and heroin, after neighbouring Thailand toughened its stance on illegal drugs in 2002.

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