Two men were arrested by officials at at Phnom Penh International Airport in June 2025, where authorities found 22 kilos of dried marijuana in their suitcases
Two Brits have been sent to Cambodian jail after trying to smuggle drugs back to the UK.
Ciaran Crellin Ashley Stephen, 29, and Roger Jordan James, 21, were arrested by officials at at Phnom Penh International Airport in June 2025, where authorities found 22 kilos of dried marijuana packed in their bags. It is alleged the lads were trying to take advantage of the drug’s legal status in the region, and were returning to Newcastle when they were caught.
Upon discovery, they were detained at Prey Sar Prison in Phnom Penh, known as one of the country’s ‘worst’ prisons. It’s reported that those behind bars face brutal abuse, squalid conditions, poor food and overcrowded spaces, making it one of the region’s most feared jails.
The pair were found guilty on February 24 of ‘dried marijuana possession, trafficking and transport.’ Judge Tithsothy Borachhath said: “Ciaran Crellin Ashley Stephen is sentenced by the Phnom Penh Municipal Court to 14 years and fine of £7,368 while Roger Jordan James is sentenced by the court to 10 years and a fine of £3,693.”
The judge added that the pair have a month from the date the ruling came about to appeal the decision. This is not Ciaran’s first run-in with law enforcement, as per The Sun.
In August 2018, he was detained for ‘resisting an officer in the execution of his duty’ and again in November 2018 for stealing Christmas gifts.
It comes as a real life ‘Walter White’ hatched a Breaking Bad-style plot to flood Britain with crystal meth made in a drug factory inside a mobile home.
Motorcycle repairman Dudley Brennan, 31, sent accomplice Peter Weston, 40, a screenshot of an advert for a 1989 Chevrolet GMC Allegro camper.
It looked like the one White – played by actor Bryan Cranston – used to produce meth in the hit Netflix crime drama. Weston replied: “Ha, Breaking Bad.”
Brennan planned to produce 100 litres of the deadly drug – which can trigger strokes, heart attacks, convulsions and death – in just 12 hours while he drove the mobile production plant around the Lake District.
He even crowed he could claim the vehicle was for work and stick it ‘to the government as a business tax write-off’.
But National Crime Agency cops swooped before he could go into production when they raided his workshop in Kendal, Cumbria, after witnessing him taking delivery of 10 Turkish-made Ekol TVBFs guns.
The bomb squad was called in and homes in the picturesque town were evacuated after police found then-unknown chemicals in a meth lab in Brennan’s kitchen.
The duo had planned to go into mass meth production. Weston had been previously imprisoned for conspiracy to supply cocaine.
He, Brennan and three henchmen were jailed for over 84 years at Bolton Crown Court for drugs and firearms crimes.
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