A June 2026 report by Earth League International (ELI), a US-based nonprofit organization, identified two Cambodia-based traffickers as possible leading figures in the Lower Mekong’s (*1) illegal wildlife trade. The report, based on more than a year of undercover investigation, described Cambodia as both a consumer market for endangered wildlife products and a transit point for products smuggled onward to China.

ELI highlighted two Cambodia-based traffickers as the most prominent figures in the investigation, while also documenting a wider network of traffickers operating in Cambodia. Their trade included wildlife products and live animals from tigers, elephants, rhinos, pangolins, sea turtles, coral, bears and other species, several of which include species listed as endangered or critically endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

Tigers remained central to the trade, although Cambodia’s wild tigers are functionally extinct. ELI said the leading traffickers killed at least one tiger every week and sold tiger products through restaurants in Cambodia, including skeletons, meat, live cubs, bone wine and penis-based food and wine. Tiger farms in Cambodia, Laos and neighbouring countries were used to launder wild-caught tigers into the commercial trade, while tiger teeth and pangolin scales were altered or ground into forms that were easier to carry or ship to China.

The ELI report linked the trade to Chinese criminal and consumer networks in Cambodia, where many investigated figures and most buyers were Chinese. Domestic demand came mainly from Chinese scam-centre bosses (operators of online fraud compounds), Cambodian officials and illegal wildlife shopping tours. Some scam-centre bosses spent US$20,000–30,000 a week on wildlife products for personal use, gifts or resale to Chinese tourists. Demand was linked to status display, traditional medicine and luxury consumption.

The same networks also used Cambodia as a transit point for international trafficking to China. ELI said wildlife products moved through the country by air, land and sea, while traffickers also sold products using social media platforms such as WeChat and Telegram. Larger wildlife consignments moved through special economic zones (SEZ) in Cambodia. It said traffickers sourced wildlife and wildlife parts from Africa, Europe, Russia, South Asia and Southeast Asia. Most wild tigers smuggled into Cambodia came from India.

For onward movement to China, ELI documented routes from Cambodian ports to Thailand, then through Myanmar into China’s Yunnan province before continuing to Guangdong. ELI said traffickers bribed customs and military officers on both the Myanmar and China sides of the Mekong River.

After late-2025 crackdowns on scam centres, Cambodia’s domestic illicit markets changed sharply. Some traffickers were arrested, extradited or fled, while parts of the wildlife-linked networks moved operations to Laos and Myanmar.

*1: The Lower Mekong refers to the downstream part of the Mekong River basin in mainland Southeast Asia, usually covering Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam. It is distinct from the Upper Mekong, which lies mainly in China and Myanmar.

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Ivory seized by Cambodian customs after shipment from Mozambique in 2016. (Photo: Andyb3947 / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 4.0.)