Duo jailed for life for selling 5 amphetamine pills in Dubai

Dubai: Two employees have each been jailed for life for possessing and trading methamphetamine.

Drug enforcement officers arrested the two Bangladeshi employees, 22-year-old S.S. and 25-year-old A.H., during a sting operation following a tip-off that they were trading in a mind-altering substance.

The Dubai Court of First Instance also fined each of the defendants Dh50,000.

S.S. resisted arrest and rolled on the ground to avoid being handcuffed during the sting operation in October 2013. Drugs prosecutors accused S.S. and A.H. of possessing five methamphetamine pills for trafficking purposes. S.S. was solely accused of consuming amphetamine and methamphetamine and resisting arrest.

Presiding judge Mohammad Jamal said the two accused will be deported following the completion of their punishment.

An arresting police officer testified that S.S. fiercely resisted arrest when police tried to handcuff him.

“We fell on the ground. He rolled over backwards and forwards until my colleagues and I restrained him. He begged us to let him go claiming that he was in desperate need of the money to help his sick mother,” the officer told the court.

Meanwhile the defendants claimed that they did not posses the substances for trading purposes.

“I possessed the banned substance for consumption purposes,” argued S.S. when he entered a not guilty plea.

His co-defendant said: “I had nothing to do with the pills.”

A drug enforcement officer said an informant alerted Dubai Police’s anti-narcotics department that the defendants wanted to sell methamphetamine for Dh350.

“We obtained prosecutors’ permission to arrest the suspects in a sting operation. A police patrol was dispatched to Al Muteenah Road where the deal was arranged. The informant posed as a potential buyer and, once he sealed the deal, he signalled for the drug enforcement officers who raided the place to arrest the defendants. A.H. was handcuffed immediately while S.S. refused to surrender,” said the officer.

An anti-narcotics police lieutenant testified that S.S. refused to answer when they questioned him.

“He persistently begged us to help him. The informant claimed that S.S. sold the methamphetamine for Dh300 and not Dh350,” said the lieutenant.

Tuesday’s ruling remains subject to appeal within 15 days.