Dubai: A women visitor denied in court yesterday the charge of smuggling three kilograms of amphetamines into the country with the intention of selling it.
Prosecutors accused the 26-year-old Romanian woman, A.M., of smuggling and possessing three kilograms of crystal methamphetamine to sell.
Meanwhile another visitor, a 41-year-old Japanese woman, J.S., was charged with aiding and abetting A.M.
"I am not guilty… I did not know I was carrying a drug substance. I was coming here to Dubai but my bag broke at the airport. So a strange man said he would buy me a new bag and gave it to me. I was unaware it contained any drug," said A.M. when she defended herself before the Dubai Court of First Instance.
Raided room
J.S. contended before Presiding Judge Maher Salama Al Mahdi: "I am not guilty. I did not know that the bag contained drugs."
An Emirati anti-narcotics second lieutenant testified they arrested A.M. in her hotel room. "An informant alerted us A.M. possessed amphetamine that she had smuggled from Ghana. We obtained…permission and raided the room. We found a brown travel bag that contained a plastic sack that was hidden. She claimed to us her Ghanaian friend Jack handed her the bag.
"She claimed someone in Dubai was supposed to call her and pick up the substance. When she called Jack in Ghana, he asked her to empty her clothes from the bag and take it to a hotel in Deira. A Japanese person [who later turned out to be J.S.] was scheduled to meet A.M. in the Deira hotel and take the bag," the second lieutenant told prosecutors.
