The National Anti-Drugs Authority deputy secretary-general Mok Chito said the seizing, which was the biggest bust of ecstasy, happened on August 7 when the suspect, a Chinese national identified as Yao Zeye came to pick up the boxes. He was charged with drug trafficking, and if convicted, he faces up to life imprisonment.
Cambodian authorities found a total of 98kh of MDMA pills. The shipment was intended to be distributed in the country, and the neighbourhood, Vietnam. One pill is said to worth US$20 to US$80, meaning this seize has stopped drug transactions worth millions of dollars.
The kingdom, seemingly favored by smugglers as a transit point, has taken stricter actions. The authorities have hundreds arrested including senior officials and foreigners, and heavy sentences are given for drug criminals.
Seemingly, this isn't a case only in Cambodia. Other Southeast Asian countries, such as Indonesia, Philippines, also Thailand, Laos, and Myanmar; the latter three used to be the infamous Golden Triangle for drugs production, especially opium and heroin, also put on or revise a stricter laws and severe punishment up to death penalty to war against drugs crimes, dealings, and trafficking. The most controversial might be how the Philippines and Indonesia dealt with drugs trafficking these past few years.
In the Philippines, Humans Right Watch reported that more than 12,000 people, most of them poor urban dwellers, have been killed in the name of “war on drugs” since Rodrigo Duterte became president on June 30, 2016.
Read more: Inside Duterte’s Unlawful War on Drugs
The other archipelago country, Indonesia, has not taken that dramatic measure, however, under Joko Widodo’s administration, at least 18 convicted drugs traffickers were executed since Indonesia ended a four-year unofficial moratorium on the death penalty in March 2013.
Jokowi, as he's famously addressed, said that it was an “important shock therapy” to warn people on the consequences of smuggling, distributing drugs or other violations on Indonesia's drug laws.
Jokowi had also expressed a similar sentiment like Duterte. In a speech on the United Development Party (PPP) national working meeting (Mukernas) on July 21, 2017, he instructed the law enforcement to be more firm when dealing with foreign drugs criminals who resist upon arrest.
“Gun them down. Give no mercy,” Jokowi said at that time, as he emphasized on Indonesia emergency situation in dealing with drugs trafficking.