Police arrested three alleged drug traffickers in Phnom Penh Wednesday night, seizing more the 25,500 methamphetamine tablets, one pistol, and one assault rifle, a senior counter-drug official said Thursday.

The arrests were the result of a raid on a vehicle near the intersections of Monivong and Mao Tse Tong boulevards in Chamkarmon district around 7 pm, police said.

The three vehicle occupants, all Cambodian men, Vong Sothun, 30, Nou Bunlong, 37, and Su Leang, 51, were being questioned by Ministry of Interior police Thursday.

“The three ringleaders were transporting the drugs from the Lao border to sell in Phnom Penh,” Lt. Gen. Mek Dara, secretary-general of the National Anti-Drug Authority, told VOA Khmer.

Phnom Penh authorities followed up on information from the border police in Stung Treng district, who noticed a suspicious vehicle and called it in, he said.

In the first three months of 2009, counter-drug police have “suppressed 64 cases of illegal drugs,” he said. Police have arrested 132 people on drug-related charges and confiscated more than 50,000 methamphetamine tablets.

Police in 2008 pursued 196 cases related to illegal drugs, 50 cases more than in 2007, arresting 388 people, he said.