Man caught with bag of 6kg cocaine, gets jail

DUBAI: The Dubai Court of Appeal upheld the verdict issued by the Court of First Instance, imprisoning an African convict for 10 years and fining him Dhs50,000 for bringing 6,250 kilogrammes of cocaine in his bag.

Earlier in last October, a customs officer suspected the contents of a traveller’s bag, so he searched it, and he found eight suspicious plastic rolls. The seizures were transferred to the criminal laboratory, while the traveller was detained by the police.

The substance contained in the rolls were found to be cocaine weighing 6.25kg, based on the criminal laboratory report.

On interrogating the accused, he denied his knowledge about the seized substances and that he had no idea about their presence in his baggage. Moreover, he said that he had bought the bag with its contents from a food store in his home country on the day of travelling.

Recently, an African salesman, 37 years old, was arrested and prosecuted on drug-trafficking charges for atempting to smuggle 2,142 grammes of cocaine into Dubai Airport.

The court records point out that a customs officer had suspected the contents of the defendant’s luggage upon his arrival at the airport last May.

The officer noticed a density in the bag as it went through the scanner, and accordingly asked the defendant to undergo a search. The officer notified the defendant that he will have to break into the botom of the bag as he suspected that something was hidden down there.

However, the defendant refused and stated that he must be paid if the bag would be torn apart, so it was agreed for it.

This is when the smuggler’s face turned pale and nervousness overtook him.

Eventually, the officer found 4 black-coloured rolls containing a white substance that was found to be cocaine, weighing 2,142g.

When asked, the defendant admited to receiving the bag from a person back in his home country, who asked him to deliver it to a resident in Dubai.