Drug mule loses appeal against 10-year sentence

DUBAI // A drug mule caught at Dubai International Airport with about 1kg of cocaine in his stomach must see out his 10-year jail term, the Court of Appeal ruled.

The transit passenger was sentenced in October for smuggling 902.8 grams of cocaine, which was mixed with liquid inside 30 condoms.

The 32-year-old Ecuadorean was arrested on March 31, having come to the attention of police after suffering a head injury at the airport. It was not revealed how the injury occurred.

“I was approached by a dutyfree employee who told me there was a passenger who didn’t seem well and was bleeding from the head,” a policeman said.

The officer approached the passenger and spoke to him in English, but the man did not respond.

The officer took him to the police office in Terminal 3 and asked medics to treat him.

“He refused help, so I took him to the clinic, where he started acting suspiciously,” the officer said.

The passenger was referred to Rashid Hospital and after two days there, the defendant met a Spanish-speaking doctor who confronted him about the drugs in his stomach.

The defendant confessed to a charge of smuggling drugs when he appeared at Dubai Criminal Court.

He was also fined Dh50,000 and will be deported after serving his prison sentence.