Thousands of marijuana seedlings destroyed in Takeo's Kiri Vong
Police destroyed thousands of marijuana seedlings spread across eight sites covering about 2,000 square metres on Toteung mountain in Takeo's Kiri Vong district, seizing six irrigation water tanks. No growers were arrested after they fled before police arrived, continuing a cycle of replanting and eradication reported since 2019.
🇰🇭 Toteung mountain, Kiri Vong district, Takeo · Cambodia
Takeo provincial police chief Major General Sok Samnang and Kiri Vong police
chief Yuk Sarath led a police team to Toteung mountain in Kiri Vong district.[1]The team found and destroyed thousands of illegally grown marijuana
seedlings on the mountain on Saturday.[1]The growers escaped after learning
of the police arrival, so no arrests were made.[1]Police said they were now
on the trail of the perpetrators and hoped to arrest them soon.[1]
The seedlings were spread across eight locations covering about 2,000 square
metres, or about 0.2 hectares.[1]Police also found six water tanks placed on
the mountain to help cultivate the illegal crop.[1]
A police spokesman said local people are afraid to report this cultivation for
fear that retaliation might happen to them.[1]Police have successfully
destroyed crops planted by the perpetrators since 2019, each time in a different
location.[1]The spokesman said the perpetrators can keep planting and police
will keep destroying the crops.[1]Authorities were now educating local people
and community leaders on the importance of alerting police to illegal marijuana
planting.[1]
Case data
Every number and detail the sources state, with the sources that state it.
On 14 February 2025 Oral district military police and Kampong Speu provincial military police raided three one-hectare farms in Keng Raing Valley, burning 7,755 marijuana plants. Officers are searching for the cultivators; no one was arrested during the operation.
On 2 February 2025 Takeo provincial governor Vie Samnang led police, military police and district forces to seven illegal plantations on the Bayang Kor range, cutting and burning 3,365 plants across about 1,890 square metres and removing six water tanks. No arrests were reported.
Police in Mondulkiri province destroyed more than a hectare of marijuana in Sen Monorom City on 4 April 2021 and seized and destroyed about 50,000 plants weighing nearly 400 kilogrammes. The plantation owner fled before officers arrived and faces a search and up to five years in prison if convicted.
Police and military police raided five marijuana farms in the foothills near the Vietnamese border in Takeo's Kirivong district on 30 January 2021, burning more than 20,000 plants. The owners fled as officers moved in, and a manhunt followed.
