Dubai: A cook has been accused of possessing 26 drug tablets he was caught hiding at his residence by drug enforcement officers.

Officers arrested the 25-year-old Indian cook, M.N., according to records, although he was not selling drugs during his arrest. The officers did not want the informant to be exposed.

Four red pills were seized from M.N. and the remaining pills were seized from his residence after drug officers searched for them, said records.

Prosecutors accused the suspect of possessing methamphetamine for peddling purposes.

The cook pleaded not guilty when he appeared before the Dubai Court of First Instance on Monday.

According to the charge sheet, prosecutors said the defendant possessed six pouches that contained 26 mind-altering substances for peddling purposes.

“I possessed the pills but not for peddling … I kept them with me for my personal consumption,” M.N. told presiding judge Wajdi Al Menyawi in court.

An anti-narcotics police lieutenant claimed to prosecutors that an informant alerted them that the suspect possessed methamphetamine for peddling purposes in June.

“A team of drug officers headed to Naif area to apprehend the suspect in a sting operation after we arranged with the informant to communicate with M.N. We arrested the latter outside a hotel in Naif once we spotted him. Upon searching him, we found four red pills in his shirt pocket. Then we escorted him to his residence where we also seized 22 pills that were hidden in a box under his bed. The suspect was taken to Dubai Police’s anti-narcotics department where he underwent a drug test. During questioning he alleged that he had taken the drugs from a drug distributor for peddling purposes … he admitted that he had agreed to sell a few pills to the informant for Dh50. The pills were stacked inside pouches ready for sale. However we could not arrest him selling the pills because we did not want the informant to be exposed,” the lieutenant testified.

Records said the suspect tested negative for drugs.

M.N. was cited as admitting to prosecutors that the pills were packed and made ready for sale.

The trial continues.