Police on Sunday captured a Romanian man who arrived at Phnom Penh International Airport with almost a large portion of a million dollars worth of cocaine in his gear, and in addition a Nigerian national to whom he supposedly proposed to hand off the booty.
Adrian-Calin Varadi, 35, had touched base from Brazil and was secured by powers at the air terminal at around 4 p.m. in light of a tip from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), Deputy National Police Commissioner Mok Chito said on Monday.
"We got data in the morning from the DEA. The DEA educated us there was a probability that a suspect was on a flight from Brazil to Cambodia… associated with trafficking drugs," he said. "Among the travelers, we suspected one individual, a Romanian national. So we checked his things and discovered about 20 bundles of cocaine."
Lieutenant General Chito said the medications weighed about 5 kg.
He didn't clarify why they picked Mr. Varadi out of the group. However, once captured and addressed, he said, the Romanian drove police to his claimed Nigerian contact, Chukwuemeka Ibe, 40, who was captured at a Phnom Penh guesthouse on Sunday evening.
"[Mr. Varadi] came to Cambodia with a specific end goal to give the medications to someone else who originated from Thailand," he said. "We as of now captured the individual who came to take the things."
He said both suspects were being kept at the Interior Ministry's hostile to medication office. Division executive Khieu Saman declined to remark.
Meas Vyrith, secretary-general of the National Authority for Combating Drugs, said Mr. Varadi had been voyaging alone with the medications in his bag. He said the cocaine had a business sector estimation of about $500,000 and was likely bound for another nation. "There is no business sector for cocaine in Cambodia," he said.
The bust bore similitudes to a capture made three years back. All things considered, police captured a 38-year-old Romanian man at Siem Reap International Airport after he touched base from Brazil with 3.5 kg of cocaine.
