The trial of eight Nigerian men and a
Cambodian woman accused of dealing drugs crystal methamphetamine from a
Mountain of Fire and Miracles Ministries Church in Phnom
Penh, Cambodia, ended on Tuesday, August 9, with the woman claiming she
had no idea
that the smartphone boxes she delivered in 2014 were filled with drugs.
During
the third and final day of questioning at the Phnom Penh Municipal
Court, Nigerian national Favour Nnabuife Okorom, 36, and the Cambodian
defendant, Mam Vinyong, 25, were questioned over their involvement in a
crystal methamphetamine ring that police say operated out of the
Mountain of Fire and
Miracles Ministries Church in Meanchey district in 2014 and early 2015.
Ms.
Vinyong admitted to delivering smartphone boxes for defendant Tony
Mmaduka Chukwuonye, but claimed she was unaware that there were drugs
inside. The pair became close
after meeting at the church following the end of her previous
relationship, she said, adding that he had paid for powdered milk for
her baby.
"At the end of
October and early November, I delivered the goods two or three times,
and in December I delivered them one more time," she said, adding that
she was paid $100 per day for acting as a courier.
"Mr. Tony just told me they contained valuable objects and I thought they might be brand-new smartphones," she said.
However,
Roeung Pheap, a bureau chief at the Interior Ministry’s anti-drug
department, refuted Ms. Vinyong’s claim of innocence.
"Before
we went to arrest her, our undercover officers reported that she was
delivering the drugs to other dealers, and we know Mr. Tony was the one
who often ordered her to do it," he said.
Like the seven other Nigerian defendants who testified during two previous days of hearings, Mr. Okorom denied everything. Asked
about receiving drugs from Ms. Vinyong at a KFC restaurant at Phnom
Penh’s Sovanna Shopping Center, he said,
"I had only lived in Cambodia
for two months and had never been to KFC.”
A verdict is due on September 12.
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