Dubai: A jobless man has been jailed for 10 years for smuggling marijuana in a pair of ripped shoes and possession of the drug for promotional purposes.
Drug enforcement officers found the marijuana split into two parts, each of which was hidden in a pair of the very old shoes during a raid at the hotel room where the 22-year-old Indian man, M.J., was staying in Al Baraha.
Drugs prosecutors accused M.J. of smuggling and possessing 110g of marijuana for promotional purposes and consuming hashish.
The Dubai Court of First Instance jailed M.J. for ten years and fined him Dh50,000 on Sunday.
The accused had confessed that he possessed the drugs for his personal consumption and not for promotional purposes.
Presiding judge Fahd Al Shamsi said the accused will be deported following the completion of his punishment.
An anti-narcotics police lieutenant testified that an informant alerted them that the defendant possessed and used drugs at his hotel room in Al Baraha.
“The informant also alerted us that the defendant was promoting drugs. We raided M.J.’s hotel room at 10pm. When we asked him if he possessed any drugs, he pointed at the cupboard. Then he took out a white bag that contained several pairs of shoes. We found around 53g of marijuana hidden in one shoe and 57g hidden in the other. The other shoes were empty. On confronting him with the findings, the defendant confessed that he smuggled the drugs from his country and admitted that he was supposed to hand them over to another person. He claimed that he delivered a part prior to his arrest,” the lieutenant told prosecutors. Dubai Police’s forensic laboratory confirmed that the defendant tested positive for hashish.
Sunday’s ruling remains subject to appeal within 15 days.
