IFEANYI OKAFOR AND PASCAL.... The two Nigerian men arrested in Cambodia with drugs in their stomachs sentenced to life imprisonment

Chei......The two Nigerian men arrested in Cambodia with 1.27 kilograms of cocaine were sentenced on Wednesday, May 24th, to life imprisonment and an approximately $10,000 fine.


Y Rin, a spokesman for the municipal court, said that the sentence for the two men – Okafor Ifeanyi Anthony, 42, and Adibe Paschal, 33 – was based on Article 40 of the Anti-Drug Law.

"Based on the law, the court allows them to appeal the conviction," he said.

Okafor and Adibe were arrested in May 2016 for allegedly smuggling 1.27 kilograms in their stomachs from Nigeria to Vietnam via Dubai and then to Cambodia, where they were arrested.
Authorities suspected that they were bound for Pattaya in Thailand.

Paschal denied knowledge of the drugs and had claimed that he had only gotten to know Anthony at the airport, which the latter corroborated.

Source: PhnomPenPost

Two Nigerian men arrested for smuggling 1.27 kilograms of cocaine in one of the men's stomachs have had their hearing postponed to seek evidence on whether they knew each other or had accidentally met at the airport. . Phnom Penh Municipal Court presiding judge Heng Kesro on Tuesday, April 18th, ordered the postponement until April 28 to clarify what the relationship between the men was.

Okafor Ifeanyi Anthony, 42, and Adibe Paschal, also known as Oscar, 33, flew into Cambodia from Nigeria in May last year on a Qatar Airways flight after a transit in Dubai.

Okafor Ifeanyi Anthony and Adibe Paschal were arrested at Phnnom Penh International Airport on Monday, May 9 for smuggling 1.27 kilograms of cocaine inside their stomachs. ..and more photos abeg

They were arrested at Phnom Penh International Airport with over a kilogram of cocaine discovered in Anthony’s stomach, according to their confession at the hearing.

Anthony said that he was asked to swallow the drug capsules by a man in Nigeria named “Nandy”, who allegedly told him to bring the drugs to a man called “Okata” living in Cambodia.

“[Nandy] said Okata will give me food to eat in order to get the drugs out, and he will give me $8,000 as a transportation fee,” he said.

Paschal denied any knowledge of the drugs, claiming that he met Anthony for the first time at the Phnom Penh airport and that he came to Cambodia to buy clothes to sell in Nigeria.

“When I was at the immigration section [of the airport], I met Anthony and asked him for help to fill out the form. After passing the scan machine, they arrested us,” Oscar said.

Both suspects said they had not known each other before and that they only started chatting at the airport