A Cambodian provincial court has sentenced three men, one Lao national and two Thai nationals, to life in prison for smuggling nearly 100 kilograms of raw opium, local media reported on 2 May.
A statement from the Stung Treng Provincial Court of First Instance released on April 29, identified the convicted men as Tong Thor, 31, from Laos, and Thai nationals Hanawat Wonghiranya, 44, and Witsanu Saiboot, 51. The court also fined each man KHR 50 million (USD 12,500) for the transportation of raw opium.
Authorities seized the narcotics at three separate locations, Stung Treng province’s Borei Ou Svay Senchey district, Kratie’s Chet Borei district, and the provincial capital of Preah Sihanouk.
Local media did not identify where the men had transported the opium from.
The case is the latest in a series of major drug busts in Stung Treng, a northeastern Cambodian province bordering the southern Lao provinces of Attapeu and Champasak.
In April 2025, Cambodian authorities seized 470 kilograms of opium along the Cambodia-Laos border in the same province and arrested two Cambodian men. A month earlier, also in Stung Treng, authorities charged eight individuals, including one Lao national, with transporting more than 350 kilograms of opium resin from Laos into Cambodia.


