Duo get 10-year jail for importing over 1.4 million drug tablets in UAE

Dubai - The two convicts will be deported after serving their term and paying a Dh100,000 fine each.

Two Iraqi nationals were sentenced to ten years in jail by the Dubai Court of First Instance after they were found importing more than 1.4 million medically-controlled tablets with the intention to sell them in the country.
A 58-year-old third Iraqi accused, working as a PRO, was cleared of the same charge.
The two convicts, aged 33 and 50, will be deported after serving their term and paying a Dh100,000 fine each.
The court ordered that the seized quantity (1,433,224 amphetamine pills) be confiscated.
The case dates back to January 16.
A Dubai Police anti-narcotics official said that around 11am on January 16, they received reliable information about a boat coming from Iraq and bound to dock at Al Hamriyah Port and it carried heavy machinery suspected to have narcotics stashed inside. "The boat arrived shortly before noon the next day. Our officers searched the boat and found bags containing large quantities of pills stashed in the machinery."
The customs officers took out the bags and inspected them.
The PRO, who was handling the clearance of the shipment, told the officers that it belonged to the 33-year-old accused. "That defendant was called to come to the port but he stalled. An arrest warrant was issued for him and he was later interrogated at the narcotics directorate after he was caught trying to flee the country," the police told the prosecutor.
"The accused confessed he had been assigned by the 50-year-old accomplice to receive the shipment and he was to be paid for that."
The verdict has been appealed.
mary@khaleejtimes.com

• Dubai