Cambodia Enhances Cooperation with Australian Police Against Transnational Crime, Including Cyber Offenses

Cambodia and Australia are enhancing cooperation between their police forces to combat transnational crime, including cyber offenses. This bilateral cooperation is being realized through the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the Cambodian National Police and the Australian Federal Police. General Sar Thet, Commissioner General of the National Police, officially signed the MoU with Ms. Rachel Ball, Senior Police Officer and Representative of the Australian Federal Police, in Canberra during a visit by a high-level delegation from the Cambodian National Police in early September 2026. This was disclosed by Mr. Touch Sokha, Deputy Spokesperson for the Ministry of Interior, who highlighted the one-year results of joint cooperation between the police forces of the two countries, noting that five cases have been investigated by the Cambodian police in collaboration with Australian police. According to Mr. Touch Sokha, the MoU aims to strengthen cooperation in combating transnational crimes, including terrorism, human trafficking and smuggling, sexual abuse of children, illegal drug trafficking, arms trafficking, money laundering, cybercrimes, identity fraud, and other offenses. The Deputy Spokesperson further explained that under this MoU, both parties have established a transnational crime investigation team to prevent, suppress, and eradicate all transnational crimes, especially those originating from Cambodia into Australia, or from Australia into Cambodia, and from other countries related to the two nations. The Deputy Spokesperson for the Ministry of Interior added that over the past year, from 2025 to June 2026, the transnational crime investigation team of the National Police General Department has closely cooperated with the Australian Federal Police in investigations and information exchange to combat transnational and cybercrimes. In this regard, Cambodian police received five requests from the Australian side related to cyber fraud. Among these, two cases were related to crypto fraud; one requested the examination of two email addresses, and the investigation found that these emails originated from servers of Google in the United States. Another case involved Australia requesting the examination of one IP address owner, but due to a lack of further investigative leads, the Australian police requested the closure of the investigation. Of the remaining two cases, one requested examination of immigration data for six suspects, and the investigation found that the suspects had not entered Cambodia. For another case, Australia requested cooperation in investigating three locations, and as a result, the Australian police are working with the Anti-Cybercrime Department. The fifth case involved online extortion, which resulted in the authorities locating the victim and facilitating their return to Australia, though Cambodian authorities had no information on the suspects because the victim had contacted them online. According to Mr. Touch Sokha, the transnational crime investigation team is currently continuing to cooperate closely with the Australian police on remaining cyber fraud cases, following Cambodia's successful large-scale crackdown on cybercrimes.