Ministry seizes 30 tonnes of cosmetics

IN THE latest in a string of counterfeit cosmetics busts this year, the Ministry of Interior’s Anti-Counterfeit Committee seized 30 tonnes of what are believed to be fake skincare products at their alleged owner’s home and warehouse in the capital’s Tuol Svay Prey I commune over the past two days.

According to the committee’s Deputy Secretary Toch Yuthyea, authorities first raided the home of Hin Touch, 42, on Monday and then his warehouse yesterday, in which they found 50 types of products, including skin-whitening lotion.

“We have arrested the owner of the house . . . We saw that the packaging was not of good quality. They told us that they ordered the products from Thailand,” he said, adding that the suspect will be brought to court today.

“Their business and those cosmetics are not licensed. Cosmetics need to get permission from the Health Ministry to be distributed in Cambodia,” he said.

“We will have a meeting with the experts to identify if the cosmetics are fake or original . . . I think they did the packaging here.”

Just last month, authorities confiscated 38 tonnes of illegal cosmetics at two locations in Phnom Penh, in what was billed as the largest raid in an ongoing crackdown on counterfeit cosmetics.

A 52-year-old suspect was also arrested in connection with the raid, and told authorities that the seized goods had been imported from Vietnam, though some of the samples appeared to originate elsewhere, officials said.