Police in Takeo province destroyed 25,409 marijuana plants growing across 73 plots in two villages of Preah Bat Choan Chum commune in Kiri Vong district.[1][2] The crackdown ran over Wednesday and Thursday, and officers cut the plants down and burned them at the scene.[1][2]
Deputy district police chief Yang Dara said an undercover officer posing as a hunter for honey or wildlife located the plots, and that no one was arrested because villagers would not say who the farm belonged to.[1] District police chief Yuth Sarath said villagers had secretly planted the crop, still small, in the mountains after a broker promised to buy it back from them.[2]
Police chose not to arrest the villagers and had them sign contracts promising not to grow cannabis again.[2] Provincial deputy police chief Ek Sophy said growers in the area had been warned before, while one villager, Sous Yan, said he knew the crop was illegal but grew it because it paid more than other crops.[2]
Officers said they were investigating to arrest the brokers and owners behind the farms.[1]
