Woman gets 1-year jail for possessing controlled pills

Dubai - She was arrested at the Dubai International Airport with possession of 2,940 medically-controlled pills.

A 19-year-old Austrian woman, who was arrested at Dubai International Airport with possession of 2,940 medically-controlled pills, has been sentenced to one year in jail.
The woman, who holds a visit visa to Dubai, has also been ordered to be deported by the Court of First Instance.
A customs inspector said that she was on an evening shift at the arrival hall of Terminal 1 of the airport on May 12.
"The defendant's bag raised other inspector's suspicions. An ?officer watched her as she picked it up right after it was scanned. She took a small handbag out of it," the inspector said.
The woman's handbag was scanned shortly afterwards and a large quantity of medicines was detected inside.
"I then asked her whether she had any money, drugs or gold to declare, but she denied it," the customs inspector, who was on duty, said.
The inspector then searched the bag and found a large quantity of medically-controlled tablets in her handbag.
"She claimed to me she was ?taking those pills as she was on treatment," the inspector said.
The quantity seized from her was 2,939 tablets of a drug that can't be taken without a medical prescription. Her urine sample tested negative for drugs, as per the Crime Lab's report.
The court has ordered the seized pills be confiscated.
mary@khaleejtimes.com

• Dubai