2 foreigners get life for drug pushing

MANILA, Philippines - A Manila regional trial court judge convicted Friday two foreigners caught selling over 400 grams of ephedrine in a sting over four years ago.

Branch 13 Judge Emilio Rodolfo Legaspi III sentenced Siu Ming Tat of Hong Kong and Malaysian citizen Lee Yoong Hoew to life in prison and fined them P500,000 each.

The two were arrested in a sting at a hotel room they rented in Binondo on July 25, 2012.

Court records show an informant told police about his arrangement to buy P1.43 million worth of what he thought was shabu from the two men.

Police officers seized a plastic bag containing what was later found to be 426.30 grams of ephedrine, a drug prohibited by Republic Act 9165 or the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002 

Earlier, the same court also convicted African James Williams and his Filipina accomplice Joy Montecillo for conspiring to sell 30.04 grams of shabu to Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency operatives who posed as buyers during a sting along Leon Guinto street in Manila on May 2, 2012.