Traffickers earn stiff sentences

[geovalin]

Buth Reaksmey Kongkea

Three men and one woman were sentenced to a combined 80 years in prison yesterday for attempting to traffic more than half a kilogram of methamphetamine.

The group, convicted at Phnom Penh Municipal Court, was busted in March for running a drug ring from a private maternity clinic in the capital’s Meanchey district.

A police raid at the Damnak Thom village property uncovered more than a half kilogram of powder methamphetamine and two K54 pistols.

Presiding judge Top Chhunheng sentenced the clinic’s owner, Deth Socheath, 54; cleaner Chhorn Lin, 44; Phal Rithiya, 25; and Kong Chhunly, 52, to 20 years in prison each for drug trafficking and using a weapon without permission.

The defendants were also fined about $10,000 each.

Lieutenant Colonel Chan Chheng, deputy chief in the Ministry of Interior’s anti-drug trafficking unit, said officers spent months investigating the group before making arrests.

http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/traffickers-earn-stiff-sentences