Briton’s police ordeal in Dubai after air crew ‘falsely accuse her of taking cocaine on f light’
A PROPERTY investor was arrested after falsely being accused of taking cocaine on a flight, she claims.
Caren Harmon said police in Dubai then forced her to take a blood test and threatened her with jail.
Miss Harmon, 43, was flying with Emirates from London to Johannesburg for a friend’s engagement party when cabin crew alerted police.
When she disembarked at Dubai International for a connecting flight, four officers were waiting for her.
She was detained for more than three hours, was forced to give a blood test, had her baggage searched and missed her connecting flight.
She said she was given no warning during the flight on May 9.
Miss Harmon, who lives in Shepherd’s Bush, West London, said: ‘They just kept saying to me, “you know exactly what you’ve done wrong”.
‘The only explanation they gave me was that I was seen looking through my bag, sniffing my nose and touching my nose, which is quite normal on a long flight with air conditioning. They implied to the police that I had been taking cocaine, as if I would do something like that. I was terrified.’
Police checked her luggage for illegal substances and took her blood, but found nothing, Miss Harmon said. She added: ‘I assumed it was testing for drugs but they never even said what they were doing. I was so shaken I didn’t even think to refuse.’
Miss Harmon, who is of dual British and South African nationality, said when her test results came back negative she was then told she could end up in jail because she had taken the common anxiety drug Xanor, also known as alprazolam, to help her sleep on the flight.
‘They said if you don’t have a prescription and have pills you can go to jail for up to six years,’ she said.
‘I was horrified and started freaking out. Eventually after about three-anda-half hours they made me sign something in Arabic with no translation and let me go. I was crying like a baby at this point.’
She then caught a later flight to Johannesburg for no extra charge.
Emirates confirmed a woman had been arrested but did not want to comment further. Dubai police did not comment.