A Philippine lower court has sentenced a Kenyan national and her Filipina cohort to life imprisonment and fined them 2 million pesos (about 46,500 US dollars) each after finding them guilty for the delivery of 4.5 kilogrammes of shabu (methamphetamine hydrochloride), a Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency official said Saturday.
Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) Director General Arturo Cacdac Jr. identified Elizabeth Nyambura Runana, a Kenyan national; and Maria Grace Lacson, a Filipina recruiter of drug couriers, as members of an African drugs syndicate.
Cacdac said a Manila Regional Trial Court judge recently found Nyambura and Lacson guilty beyond doubt for violation of Section 5 (Delivery of Dangerous Drugs), in relation to Section 26 (Conspiracy). They were both sentenced to life imprisonment without eligibility for parole.
In June 2011, operatives of PDEA Special Enforcement Service arrested Nyambura and Lacson after they were caught red-handed handing over packages containing 4.5 kgs of shabu worth 24 million pesos (0.56 million dollars) to a PDEA agent inside a hotel in Manila.
