A 37-YEAR-OLD Nigerian national was sentenced to nine years in prison yesterday for drug trafficking in Phnom Penh’s Daun Penh district last year.

According to presiding judge Suos Sam Ath, Prince Onyek Achukwu Ubadike, also known as Richard, was found guilty of selling two packets of drugs – one of cocaine and one of methamphetamines,  weighing a total of 40 grams – to an undercover police officer in the capital’s Phsar Kandal II commune.

He will be deported on completion of his sentence, barring an overturning of his conviction on appeal.

Ngoun Sitha, deputy chief of the Anti-Drugs Police Department at the Ministry of Interior, said that according to their investigation, Ubadike occupied a fairly prominent position in the local drug trade.

“He was a ringleader, hiding and selling drugs in Cambodia,” he said, adding that a raid on Ubadike’s home yielded a package of marijuana and other related drug materials.

Ubadike said he would appeal soon, saying in court that he was simply a courier, and that a Cameroonian, who has since fled, owned the drugs.