Dubai: A mother and her son have blamed a travel agent for landing them in trouble when he handed them a travel bag that had secret pockets stuffed with heroin.

Law enforcement officers were said to have stopped the Pakistani mother, 50, and her son, 23, for carrying a travel bag that contained 1.2kg of heroin that was hidden in secret pockets at the Dubai International Airport in April.

Drug prosecutor charged the mother and her son of smuggling and possessing heroin.

The suspects refuted the charges and wept bitterly before the Dubai Court of First Instance when they pleaded not guilty on Sunday.

“We did not know that the bag contained drugs. We purchased our tickets from a travel agent in Pakistan and he told me that our travel bag was not big enough for our belongings. He gave me a bigger travel bag, in which we packed our stuff and travelled,” the 23-year-old suspect argued before the court on Sunday.

The son contended before presiding judge Fahd Al Shamsi that he only realised that they were carrying a banned substance once he and his mother were apprehended at the airport.

The suspected mother and son were spotted sobbing dearly as they defended themselves in courtroom seven.

“I trusted the agent and did not doubt his intention as he had been fixing me up with another person for a job interview in Dubai. I did not suspect anything and I had confidence in him. When he handed me the bag, I was not aware that it had secret pockets,” contended the 23-year-old suspect.

A customs inspector testified to prosecutors that she suspected the mother’s travel bag once she arrived at the airport.

“When she reached the customs checkpoint, I asked her to put her bag on the scanner. She told me that bag belonged to her. Upon searching the bag, I discovered secret pockets in which the heroin was hidden. During questioning, the mother claimed that an Afghan person gave her Dh800 and purchased for them the tickets and asked them to deliver the bag to another person in Dubai,” she claimed to prosecutors.

The suspects tested negative for drugs.

Presiding judge Al Shamsi will hand out a ruling on July 25.