The Vientiane Provincial People’s Court has sentenced eight people to prison terms of up to 15 years. The rulings, handed down on 31 July, followed convictions on charges of trafficking methamphetamine pills.
According to Vientiane Police, the defendants were arrested in separate operations across Vientiane Province and Vientiane Capital between 2023 and 2025. Quantities of methamphetamine seized ranged from small hauls to several thousand pills in the most serious case.
The court’s toughest sentence went to Bounnam, 25, a farmer from Kasi district who received 15 years of prison term and fined LAK 150 million (about USD 6,600). Police had caught him trafficking 3,240 methamphetamine pills, the largest quantity among the eight cases.
Khok, 42, a laborer from Phonhong district, received seven years in prison and a fine of LAK 46 million (USD 2,000). He had been detained with 612 pills. Faeng, 46, also from Phonhong, was sentenced to six years in prison and fined over a similar quantity. She was the only woman among the defendants.
The remaining five defendants each received five-year prison terms and fines. Most were farmers and laborers from Phonhong, Hinheup and Sangthong district in Vientiane Capital, convicted of trafficking smaller quantities of methamphetamine.
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The sentencing follows a series of tough rulings handed down by the same court in April.
In one case, a 32-year-old Lao man was sentenced to death over methamphetamine trafficking. On the same day, two Vietnamese nationals were sentenced to five and seven years in prison respectively, also over methamphetamine pill trafficking.
The case also adds to a growing list of drug prosecutions in Laos, where authorities have intensified enforcement in recent years.
Prime Minister Sonexay Siphandone told the National Assembly in July that Laos arrested 4,025 suspects in connection with 1,786 drug cases during the first six months of 2026.
Recent months have also seen a string of major seizures, including more than 10 million methamphetamine pills confiscated in Vientiane in June, one of the city’s largest drug busts in recent years, and 1.3 million methamphetamine tablets seized in Bolikhamxay Province in July.
Beyond enforcement, the government said it had admitted 7,046 people to drug rehabilitation centres nationwide in the first half of the year, of whom 2,769 completed treatment.
Officials have described tackling drug trafficking and addiction as one of the country’s national priorities
