A 25-year-old Nigerian, Unachukwu Chiluba Paulinus, has been sentenced to death by a Vietnamese court for transporting nearly three kilograms of narcotics from Cambodia into Vietnam.
People’s Court in southern province of Tay Ninh, on Tuesday, heard how police and border guard officers caught the Nigerian national red-handed carrying 2.997 kilograms of methamphetamine on February 19, 2020.
Paulinus was arrested in the Ta Pheng area of Thuan Tay hamlet in Loi Thuan commune, Ben Cau district, while transporting the illegal substance.
He told police that he arrived in Cambodia in 2019, where he met an African man called Oscar who hired him to transport the drugs from Phnom Penh to Ho Chi Minh City for $2,000 (N762,000) and received $650 (N247,000) as advance payment.
After traveling by taxi from Phnom Penh to the border, he crossed over into Vietnam and was arrested by Ben Cau district’s police.
He also confessed to having earlier transported a backpack containing drugs from Cambodia to HCM City, which he delivered to an unknown man.
Paulinus was given the death penalty for the illegal transport of drugs based on Clause 4 in Article 250 of the 2015 Penal Code.
This comes a few days after 45-year-old Ekwegbalu James Nzube, another Nigerian was also sentenced to death for trafficking nearly four kilogrammes of methamphetamine.
Nzube said he got acquainted with another Nigerian, Jone, in China in 2014 and the latter had hired him to transport drugs from Cambodia to Vietnam.
He stated that he went to Ho Chi Minh City in March before going to Cambodia to get the drugs for which he was paid $2,000 (N762,000).
Vietnam has one of the world’s toughest drug laws. Those convicted of possessing or smuggling more than 600g of heroin or 2.5kg methamphetamine face the death penalty.
See some photos of Paulinus while in court below;
