PHNOM PENH, July 22 -- Cambodian police arrested a Laotian man on Saturday for allegedly smuggling nearly 5 kilos of crystal methamphetamine from Laos into Cambodia, an anti-drug police officer said.

Yin Panharith, head of an anti-drug team at the Interior Ministry's Anti-Drug Department, said Chakly Chertaly, 22, was caught in northern Cambodia's Stung Treng province which borders Laos.

"Five big packs of illicit drug totally weighed nearly 5 kilograms were seized from the suspect during the raid," he said in a report released to the media.

Cambodia has no death sentence for drug traffickers. Under its law, a person who traffics more than 80 grams of drug will face life imprisonment.

The Southeast Asian country had arrested 9,694 suspects in 4,334 drug-related cases during the first six months of 2024, said a National Authority for Combating Drugs (NACD) report, adding that more than 120 kilograms of illicit drugs had been confiscated.