Kenyan drug mule gets life

CEBU CITY, Philippines – A court in Lapu-Lapu City yesterday sentenced a Kenyan woman to life imprisonment for transporting three kilos of methamphetamine hydrochloride, commonly known as shabu.

Regional Trial Court Branch 27 Judge Toribio Quiwag also directed Asha Atieno Ogutu to pay a fine of P3 million.

Ogutu was arrested last Sept. 29 at the Mactan Cebu International Airport, upon her arrival from Doha, Qatar.

With the help of drug-sniffing dogs, agents of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) found two packs of shabu, each weighing approximately 1.5 kilos, concealed in Ogutu’s luggage.

NBI-Manila’s Reaction Arrest and Interdiction Division (RAID) had alerted NBI-Cebu on an attempt to bring in drugs through Mactan.

During the trial, Ogutu said she met a certain Selin on the Internet  who offered to send her to the Philippines for a vacation. She said she only got hold of her luggage when she took her flight to the Philippines from Doha, Qatar.

Ogutu’s lawyer Ricardo Amores said they would file a petition with the Supreme Court for a review of the case. – Mylen Manto, Freeman News Service