Visitor tries to smuggle drugs in food boxes

dubai — A man tried to import controlled drugs by stashing them beneath cakes and biscuits in food boxes, a Dubai court has heard. The 33-year-old Pakistani man was detained on November 24 last year by the antinarcotics police officers after he arrived at the Dubai International Airport on a visit visa. Customs inspectors found 1,680 controlled drug pills in his bags.

He denied the charge of importing and possessing drugs as he stood trial at the Court of First Instance.

He claimed that the pills did not belong to him and that he was not aware of the contents of the bags he was carrying.

A customs inspector said the traveller was caught at Terminal 1. “The X-ray machine showed a suspicious volume in his bag. We kept tracking it until it reached the security gates of the customs checkpoint.”

The officers checked his bags and found the pills stashed inside food boxes. The inspector added that no other drugs were found on the defendant or in his stomach. The drugs were seized and the traveller was referred to the general directorate of narcotics.

During the police interrogation and investigation by the public prosecution, the defendant claimed he had picked up the drugs from someone back home and was asked to deliver them to a woman here.

He will be sentenced on February 28.

The X-ray machine showed a suspicious volume in his bag. We kept tracking it until it reached the security gates of the customs checkpoint.”

Customs inspector