A Chinese court has sentenced a Nigerian man to death with a two-year suspension for heroin trafficking, and his teenage Ghanaian accomplice to 15 years in jail and expulsion from the country.
Obi Chinedu and Martin Ofori arrived by air in Kashgar, northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, on November 3 last year, according to information from the Intermediate Railway Transport Court of Urumqi, the regional capital.
The Nigerian boarded a train to Urumqi two days later, but he aroused police suspicion during a routine inspection when he suddenly stood up and ran to the toilet.
Police found he had thrown his luggage out of a window and arrested him.
Police found the luggage, containing 415 grams of heroin, on Nov. 23 near the track.
Ofori was arrested on Nov. 6 on a train from Urumqi to Hankou, Hubei Province, after police found 3,014 grams of heroin in his luggage.
The court ruled that Chinedu and Offori were involved in a joint drug trafficking operation.
Judges sentenced Chinedu to death with a two-year suspension and ordered the confiscation of his property.
Ofori was sentenced to 15 years in prison, fined 10,000 yuan, and expelled from China. He was treated with leniency because he was below the age of 18.
