Dubai: Two businessmen and a worker have been jailed for 10 years each for importing nearly 9 million tramadol pills with the aim of peddling the contraband in Dubai.

Customs officials at Dubai International Airport seized the tramadol pills after they found a discrepancy in the customs’ declaration form, which mentioned medical equipment as the items being imported.

The tramadol pills were imported from India in three different consignments ostensibly to be exported to Iran via Dubai, according to records. Drug enforcement officers however discovered that all the consignments had been dispatched by the businessmen.

Drugs prosecutors had charged the two Iranian businessmen, J.A. and H.M., of importing mind-affecting substances for promotional purposes. A Bangladeshi worker, M.S., was charged with aiding and abetting the Iranian defendants.

Prosecutors filed three separate cases (3 million pills in each independent case) against J.A. and H.M. and referred them to the Dubai Court of First Instance.

When the defendants appeared in court, they denied the accusation that they imported the pills for sale locally.

“The imported pills were not meant to be sold locally but that they were to be exported to Iran,” H.M. told presiding judge Mohammad Jamal.

Defence lawyers asked the court to club the three cases together while trying the defendants.

According to Sunday’s judgement, presiding judge Jamal said the court has clubbed the three cases together and jailed the trio for 10 years each.

“Each of the defendants will pay a Dh200,000 fine. They will be deported following the completion of their punishments,” he said in courtroom three.

When asked if the imported items were banned pills, J.A. told the court: “I did not import the pills, H.M. did. I did not know that it was tramadol.”

“The pills were not seized in our possession but they were at the airport’s transit section. I knew that it is tramadol and we had imported it from India in order to export it to Iran via Dubai in transit. I had imported the products on J.A.’s name,” argued H.M.

A customs inspector testified that the tramadol pills were seized after a discrepancy was detected between the listed contents of the consignment and the items stated on the customs’ declaration.

“The declaration form read that the importer had brought medical equipment [whereas] the imported material was medicine. When we discovered a procedural error in the imported material, we seized the products. Immediately we asked the importing company to contact the owner of the products to collect the consignment; when the suspect arrived, we apprehended him,” he said.

The defendants had flouted customs procedures willfully by claiming that they were importing medical equipment when in fact it was tramadol, said records.

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