The Phnom Penh Appeal Court yesterday heard the appeal of two Nigerian men who were sentenced to a 30-year jail term and life imprisonment respectively in 2018 by the lower court for smuggling more than one kilogram of cocaine from Columbia to Cambodia in 2017.
Presiding Judge Nguon Ratana named the duo as Okoro Chukwuka Boniface, 37, and Obiora Dozie Frank, 36, former Nigerian football player with a Cambodian Football Team in Cambodia.
Judge Ratana noted that at about 4pm on July 13, 2017, Frank, who was the manager of a football team living in Phnom Penh’s Por Senchey district, drove his Lexus car dropped off his friend Okoro Chukwuka Boniface, the football player, in front of the DHL Express branch in Chom Chao commune.
He said that after dropping Boniface, Frank waited for Boniface at a car garage near Veng Sreng Street in Chom Chao commune.
The judge said plainclothes anti-drug officers were meanwhile monitoring the duo’s activities.
“Okoro Chukwuka Boniface was arrested after he had received the drug shipment from an anti-drug police officer at the DHL Express branch in Chom Chao commune,” Judge Ratana said reading the fact sheet.
“Police seized 189 packs of cocaine weighing 1,000.10 grammes (1.1 kilogrammes) which were hidden in a box of fake jewelry sent from Columbia,” he said.
He added that based on Boniface’s confession and cooperation, police arrested Frank at about 5pm at the car garage. Police seized two phones and a car from him.
The Phnom Penh Municipal Court on July 17, 2018, sentenced Boniface to a life sentence and Frank to 30 years in prison. The municipal court also fined both of them 70 million riels (about $17,000) each. They were charged with “drug transport and trafficking” under Article 40 of the Law on Drug Control.
During his appeal yesterday, Boniface admitted committing offence, saying that the drug seized belonged to an unidentified Nigerian man sent from Columbia.
Boniface said on the day of his arrest, he was hired by an unidentified Nigerian man to travel and pick up the shipment (drug) . A verdict is due on August 16.
Source: Khmertimeskh.com
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