Croydon mother, 31, faces 20 years in Cambodian prison after claiming she was 'set up' as drug mule

From the Newshound archive · first published 29 September 2026 · last updated 30 September 2026.

Tamara Martins, 31, from Croydon, was arrested at Techo Airport in Cambodia after authorities found 71 packages of cannabis — nearly 35kg — in her luggage. She insists a man in a bar recruited her to carry a suitcase of 'electronics' to the UK for cash, and says she only discovered the drugs when border staff searched her bags. She has since been transferred from a tourist detention centre to CC2 women's prison, where her phone was confiscated and she wrote to family saying: 'It's hell in here.'

Martins' ten-year-old daughter, who does not know her mother is in jail, is being cared for by Tamara's younger brother Trey, 29, in London.

Trey launched a GoFundMe appeal after the family said the cost of securing legal representation in Cambodia was beyond what they could manage alone.

Cambodia enforces zero-tolerance drug laws, with large-scale trafficking carrying sentences of decades in prison or life.