Ketamine Seizures in This Country Have Exploded Over the Past Year

Throughout the course of 2021, authorities seized a record 2.7 tonnes of ketamine within the borders of Cambodia—almost 15 times the amount seized within the country over the previous five years combined. 

The sharp uptick in seizures was revealed in a report published by the United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime (UNODC) on Monday, which noted that Cambodia’s 2.7 tonnes of ket accounted for about half of Southeast Asia’s total. By comparison, in 2020, authorities seized just 112.5 kilograms of the drug; in 2016, they seized a little over a kilo. 

“The non-medical use of ketamine from clandestine manufacture remains of concern in the region,” the authors of the report noted. “In 2021, the total amount of ketamine seized in East and Southeast Asia reached nearly 10.3 tonnes.”

While much of the country’s illicit drug supply is typically thought to flow south from the Golden Triangle—a notorious wellspring for the world’s illegal drug trade spanning the borders of Laos, Myanmar, and Thailand—UNODC experts believe that most of the sudden abundance of ketamine can be attributed to the illicit manufacture of the substance inside Cambodia itself.

“Ketamine continues to be manufactured in the Golden Triangle. However, Cambodia has been increasingly targeted for illicit synthetic drug production, not only for methamphetamine and ‘ecstasy,’ but ketamine as well,” the report revealed. 

These figures come just days after Cambodia’s Anti-Drug Department launched twin drug raids in Phnom Penh and Kampong Speu, cracking down on a secret drug processing laboratory, arresting four Taiwanese nationals, and confiscating more than 1,400 kilograms of synthetic substances. The seized materials included 40 kilograms of ketamine, 1,425 kilograms of ketamine mixture, 0.9 grams of methamphetamine tablets, and 11 tonnes of chemical compound.

The UNODC report also indicated other worrisome trends in the East and Southeast Asian region, including the continued expansion of synthetic drugs trafficking as a whole, and the record seizure of more than one billion methamphetamine tablets—otherwise known as yaba, or “crazy pills.”

Speaking to VICE World News in December, Jeremy Douglas, Southeast Asia regional representative for the UNODC, explained that the noticeable uptick in drug trafficking activity across Asia can, in many cases, be traced back to the February 2021 military coup within Myanmar, one of the world’s biggest producers of illegal synthetic drugs. 

The fallout from the coup has turned the nation on its head, diverting authorities’ attention toward matters of civil unrest and rending open cracks in the country’s border security. As a result, huge quantities of drugs that previously would have been caught at the source are now flowing through increasingly porous sections of the border and into the lucrative markets of Asia-Pacific. 

“Conditions on the ground are basically perfect for traffickers,” Douglas said at the time.

Hong Kong also saw a significant increase of ketamine seized in 2021, according to the report, with authorities there confiscating 3.2 tonnes of the drug—almost sevenfold the amount seized the year prior.

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