The Phnom Penh Municipal Court yesterday sentenced a Nigerian man to 15 years in jail and his Cambodian girlfriend to 13 years after they were convicted of trafficking 197 grams of crystal meth.

Presiding judge Lim Makaron also ordered John Vitalis Enekwenchi, the Nigerian, and Hun Thy, the Cambodian, to each pay 25 million riel ($6,238) in fines.

“Both of the accused committed the crime,” said Makaron during yesterday’s hearing.

The sentences dashed Enekwenchi’s plea for leniency for himself and his girlfriend. In an earlier hearing on February 12, Enekwenchi, 30, told the court that he didn’t know that the packet he was transporting in April last year contained drugs.

According to Enekwenchi, a white foreigner near Sorya Mall asked him to deliver a packet to a woman near Wat Phnom in exchange for $200. After he delivered the packet, anti-drug police arrived and chased him down. Police found crystal meth inside the packet.

The court heard that the woman was a police agent.

According to his testimony, Enekwenchi has lived in Cambodia since 2014.