Dubai: Two men have been jailed for life for smuggling 393,000 Captagon pills inside small stoves for promotional purposes.

Drug officers detained the Syrian men, a 24-year-old truck driver, M.N., and a 32-year-old employee, K.M., after an informant alerted them that the defendants had stored the banned pills in a warehouse in Al Quoz in April 2015.

The Dubai Court of First Instance convicted M.N. and K.M. of importing 65kg of Captagon pills for promotional purposes although they pleaded not guilty.

“I did not smuggle anything … K.M. is not connected to this case at all. Drug enforcement officers raided my warehouse and seized the pills. But I did not know anything about the pills,” M.N. told the court.

K.M. also refuted his accusations contending that he is not connected to the banned substances or the case.

Presiding judge Urfan Omar said the duo will be deported after serving their punishments and the banned substances will be confiscated.

A major at Dubai Police’s anti-narcotics department testified that an informant alerted them that the Syrians were in the process of exporting Captagon pills that were stored in a warehouse in Al Quoz.

“We raided the warehouse and apprehended the defendants. We searched them and found a set of keys in M.N.’s pocket. When asked, the latter admitted that they both had received a consignment of stoves from abroad … and the pills were secretly hidden in the stoves. The receipts and papers of the consignment were registered in K.M.’s name. He claimed that he was the one who went to Jebel Ali port and finalised the Customs papers of the consignment and then delivered some of the pills to another person in Dubai.

“The 24-year-old said K.M.’s brother, who is jailed in Kuwait for his involvement in a drug case, was the one who asked them to receive the consignment. He also admitted that he rented the warehouse to store the pills. K.M. claimed that he and M.N. received the stoves after his brother asked him to do so. He also claimed that his brother had instructed them to hand over the pills to certain individuals for money. The Captagon pills were stacked inside around 404 nylon sacks,” the major said.

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