Kiri Sakor district police in Koh Kong province moved in yesterday to inspect a suspicious warehouse inside the Dara Sakor resort zone. The place had already been flagged by local residents and exposed in the news for harboring Chinese nationals allegedly running shady operations behind closed doors.
A female caretaker at the scene told officers that the warehouse was rented by a Chinese manager from a firm operating in Dara Sakor. She admitted that late at night, Chinese men and their workers would drive in to sleep, constantly shuttling back and forth between Sihanoukville and Dara Sakor under a cloud of secrecy.
When police stepped inside, they found a massive stash of living supplies. What really gave it away, though, were the freshly lit mosquito coils still smoking in every room and the warm cigarette butts sitting in ashtrays—clear proof that the occupants had scrambled out just moments before the raid. Out on the coast where the mosquitoes are brutal, hiding out in the dead of night with burning coils and running late-night routes is hardly standard warehouse business.
Local media outlets were quick to criticize the operation, calling it a superficial attempt by police to go through the motions and clear their queue, while urging authorities to dig much deeper. Out on the streets, drivers chatting over iced coffee at local stalls already know full well who is sitting inside those heavily tinted cars cruising the road between Sihanoukville and Dara Sakor after dark. Now everyone is just waiting to see if local officials will actually get serious.
