Businessman claims he smuggled 150,000 Tramadol pills that he intended to export to Malaysia

Dubai: A businessman has claimed that he smuggled nearly 150,000 Tramadol pills while transiting Dubai but denied he intended to sell them in Dubai.

Prosecutors charged the 45-year-old Pakistani businessman, M.S., with smuggling and possessing nearly 150,000 pills of the banned substance, Tramadol, with the intention of selling them in Dubai.

“It’s true that I brought the drugs from my homeland… but my destination was Malaysia. I landed in Dubai as a transit passenger. I was taking the pills to Malaysia and did not have any intention to promote them in Dubai,” said M.S. when he defended himself before the Dubai Court of First Instance.

An Emirati customs official testified that an anti-narcotics police team approached him wanting to search two containers at Jebel Ali Port.

“The anti-narcotics officers obtained prosecutors’ permission and claimed they wanted to search the two containers. We brought the containers to a special area and opened them to be searched. The first container was 40 feet and we found inside it foodstuff and different medicines. There were two boxes that contained nearly 150,000 Tramadol pills. The other container contained another substance that was banned by Dubai Customs. The importing company moved the first container out of the port and it was outside for around two weeks. The container remained untouched but it was kept under police and customs surveillance. Then the container was moved back into the port and shipped to Malaysia.

“A month and a half later, the container was shipped back from Malaysia to Dubai and kept in Jebel Ali Port for three days. The Malaysian authorities did not permit the container into the city because it did not have a customs statement. The anti-narcotics police thereafter arrested the suspect and claimed that he confessed that he imported the substances. Police opened the container for the second time upon prosecutors’ permission,” said the official.

Prosecution records said the defendant re-imported the container to obtain a customs statement and send it back to Malaysia.

An Emirati anti-narcotics policeman testified that M.S. was arrested in a sting operation after luring him to the importing company.

The trial continues.