Dubai: Dubai Police’s anti-narcotics officers arrested a visitor and seized around 293kg of drugs and banned pills from him in November last year, the Dubai Court of First Instance heard on Sunday.
Acting on an informant’s tip, drug enforcement officers apprehended the 25-year-old Pakistani suspect, who was driving a truck from Jebel Ali Port, once he reached the fruit and vegetable market in Ras Al Khor. The drugs were concealed in boxes stacked in the truck, which the suspect claimed contained textiles.
Upon searching the truck, officers found more than 982,000 banned pills of valium, diazepam, methamphetamine, amphetamine, clonazepam, rivotril and alprazolam.
An anti-narcotics police corporal told prosecutors that “following the tip, a team kept the suspect under surveillance from the time he drove the truck out of the port till he reached his destination in Ras Al Khor where we stopped him and searched the truck. The banned substances were hidden in boxes stacked inside. During questioning, the suspect claimed at first that the boxes contained textiles … upon opening the boxes and searching them thoroughly, we discovered the pills that had been hidden professionally. Further investigations revealed that the suspect had rented two hotel rooms where more boxes containing drugs were found”.
Prosecutors charged the suspect with possessing more than 293kg of drugs and mind-affecting substances for promotional purposes.
The suspect pleaded not guilty before the Dubai Court of First Instance on Sunday.
He told presiding judge Fahd Al Shamsi that he was simply transporting the boxes and was not aware of their contents. He claimed that he was promised Dh1 for each box that he delivered.
The court will appoint a lawyer to defend the suspect when it reconvenes on March 18.
