• March 28, 2024

African tobacco abandoned in Cambodia

Sixty four boxes dumped in a village in Kompong Speu, Cambodia, contained tobacco, not drugs, as had been suspected, according to a story by Chea Takihiro and Srey Kumneth for the Khmer Times, quoting an official with the Ministry of the Interior.

Khieu Saman, director of the ministry’s anti-drug department, said his office had conducted forensic tests on the substance after finding it on Saturday. The tests had confirmed that it was tobacco.

It had been dumped because “transport issues” had delayed its passage from an unnamed African country, which meant that it had become “tainted”.

The importers had tried to sell it in Cambodia, but they were unable to do so and subsequently decided to abandon it in Kompong Spue province, Saman said.

Saman did not say what company had imported the tobacco nor why it had decided to dump it in Kompong Speu.

He was not sure whether the government would fine the company for dumping waste.