Drug Trafficking: Chineme loses appeal in Cambodian court, to serve 27 years in prison

A Cambodian Court of Appeals on Tuesday, December 6th, upheld the sentence of a Nigerian drug trafficking convict.

Precious Chineme Nwoko was sentenced to 27 years imprisonment in Cambodia in 2014

The court upheld his prison term, ruling that it was appropriate and in accordance with Cambodian law.

Khieu Vann, the lawyer for Taylor, told reporters that the appeal court’s decision was an injustice and that he would consult with his client to see if she wished to appeal to the Supreme Court. Asked today by journalists why he used dating scams to turn women into drug mules, Nwoko became enraged, according to a report by Australia’s Sydney Morning Herald "Are you stupid? Get out of here.

You think you can come here and ask questions while I am jail," he shouted at Luke McMahon, a Melbourne writer who has revealed Taylor’s plight in an exclusive story for Fairfax Media.

Nwoko, a ringleader in a heroin smuggling cartel in Cambodia was arrested for handing a backpack containing 2.2 kilos (4.8 pounds) of heroin to two women, 41-year-old Australian Yoshe Ann Taylor and 19 year old French Charlene Savarino, for onward transportation to an unidentified man in Australia.

Both women were however arrested in 2013 at Phnom Penh International Airport. Judge Kor Vandy at Phnom Penh Municipal Court who presided over their case said Nwoko and the two women were guilty of ‘cross-border smuggling of illegal drugs and thereafter sentenced Nwoko’s 19-year-old girlfriend Savarino to 25 years in jail, while 41-year-old Taylor was handed 23 years. They all denied the drug belonged to them.