Pinay, 2 Chinese nationals get life for drug trafficking

A Filipina and two Chinese nationals were sentenced to life imprisonment for drug trafficking earlier this month, six years after they were arrested for drug trafficking.

Roseriza Maureen Nicholas, and Chinese nationals Samuel Chan and Lam Chee Tat, were arrested for possessing 200 grams of shabu in 2009.

In a 21-page decision, Judge Danilo Suarez of Parañaque City Regional Trial Court Branch 259 ruled that "the prosecution has established its evidence against the accused with moral certainty, proven the existence of elements of the offense charged and that the corpus delicti was properly established and preserved."

The three were charged with violation of Section 11 of Republic Act 9165 or the Dangerous Drugs Act.

Nicholas was married to one of the Chinese nationals, according to Senior Superintendent Antonio Gardiola of the Philippine National Police-Anti-Illegal Drugs Special Operations Task Force (AIDSOTF).

He said the two foreigners were part of an international drug ring where members marry Filipinas to cover their illegal operations in the Philippines.

"The accused particularly the Chinese nationals belong to a well organized, high value foreign national illegal drug group operating in the country, and one of their modus is to marry Filipinas to cover up their nefarious illegal drug trade," Gardiola said in a statement Tuesday.

AIDSOTF found the illegal drugs inside an apartment rented by Nicholas and the Chinese nationals at Moonwalk Village, Parañaque City, on October 14, 2009. The sentence was handed down last September 11.

Aside from life imprisonment, the convicts were also fined P5 million each. —Rie Takumi/KBK, GMA News