Seven busted by Military Police for illegal arms haul

THE Military Police sent seven suspects to Battambang Provincial Court for illegally transporting weapons, as they continued to investigate the case to identify possible ringleaders for prosecution.

Sao Sokha, Commander of the National Military Police, told The Post on May 4 that four of the seven suspects were apprehended in Battambang while the others were arrested in neighbouring Banteay Meanchey province.

He added that officers were continuing to investigate the case in order to identify and arrest the masterminds of the scheme and bring them to justice.

He said it was not yet clear if this new case was related to any previous weapon cases, as he had just received preliminary information about the situation and had not received a detailed report.

“Because we have yet to arrest the masterminds, we can’t really assess that yet. Officers have been investigating, but there are no clues yet that there is any connection with previous groups. But the reason for that may be because the ringleaders behind this new group haven’t been caught yet,” he said.

He added that during the operation the officers seized five hand grenades, two AK47 rifles and 1,000 rounds of ammunition along with other pieces of military equipment.

“The grenades were made in Russia and are still new. Normally, the fuses of the grenades are not removed and the grenades stay assembled. With the grenades we confiscated, the fuses were separated from the grenades, but we counted the grenades and the fuses and they make a complete set,” he said.

Luk Py, head of the public relations bureau for the Banteay Meanchey provincial Military Police, said on May 4 that officers – in collaboration with the Battambang Military Police – arrested three suspects on May 2 at Russey Krok commune of Banteay Meanchey province’s Mongkol Borei district.

He added that after the arrest, the Banteay Meanchey provincial Military Police handed them over to their Battambang counterparts and therefore were not in a position to reveal the identities of the suspects.

Battambang provincial Military Police commander Meas Sovann could not be reached for comment on May 4.