Dubai: A driver has been accused of possessing 2.1kg of banned substances that he intended to smuggle into Kuwait for promotional purposes.
Drug enforcement officers were said to have arrested the 25-year-old Pakistani driver, M.Q., in a sting operation shortly after he talked an informant into smuggling the banned substances to Kuwait for Dh12,000 per kilogram.
Prosecutors charged M.Q. with possessing 303 capsules of heroin and diazepam weighing 2.13kg for promotional purposes.
The suspect pleaded not guilty before the Dubai Court of First Instance on Thursday.
“You did not posses any substance at all? What about the drugs that were seized in your possession?” presiding judge Urfan Omar asked him.
“A person gave me that box and asked me to give it to someone else… but I did not know that it contained drugs. I had no clue what it contained at all,” he replied.
An anti-narcotics police lieutenant testified to prosecutors that he arranged for the sting operation to be carried out in April.
“An anti-narcotics police team was dispatched to Al Qusais near the cattle market where the deal was scheduled to be sealed. I assigned one of the corporals to communicate with the defendant and arrange to meet him and pick up the drugs to smuggle them outside the country. Once the defendant arrived and handed over a nylon bag that contained the banned substances to the corporal, we raided the place and arrested M.Q. The seized drugs were wrapped in plastic tape. When I confronted the suspect, he admitted that the drugs belonged to him… he confessed that he was looking for someone to carry the drugs to Kuwait and hand them over to a person against Dh12,000 per kilogram,” the lieutenant told prosecutors.
Presiding judge Omar said the court will appoint a lawyer to defend the suspect when it reconvenes on September 29.
