Cambodia: 3 Thais arrested with counterfeit $7 million
Military commander among men arrested for possession of over $7 million in counterfeit currency, in denominations of $100
By Lauren Crothers
PHNOM PENH
A military commander is among three Thai men who were arrested in Cambodia for being in possession of more than $7 million in counterfeit currency, according to a newspaper report.
The Cambodia Daily reported Saturday that arrests the day before came in the wake of a month-long investigation by Cambodian authorities in northwestern Battambang province.
The haul, in denominations of $100, was seized following a sting in which a police officer went undercover as a currency trader.
It is the largest amount of counterfeit cash that has ever been seized in Cambodia, which has a largely dollarized economy in addition to local currency, known as the riel.
The report quotes a provincial police official as saying that one of the arrested men, 51-year-old Chamrat Vongsa, commands the Thai military’s Company 522 - which is stationed along the Thai-Cambodia border.
The three men have been detained for questioning and face jail terms of up to ten years if found guilty of trafficking counterfeit currency.
Battambang was also the site of a similar sting in January, the Daily reported, when a member of the country’s Royal Cambodian Armed Forces was arrested, along with his son-in-law, for being in possession of more than $50,000 - also in $100 denominations.
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