Dubai: Three men have been accused of possessing 12.77gm of cocaine that they intended to sell to an informant for Dh50,000 before drug enforcement officers busted them in a sting operation.

Drug officers were said to have commissioned the informant to pose as a buyer and apprehended the trio, a jobless Syrian man, T.K., and two visitors, J.J., a Spaniard, and E.J., an Australian, after the sting operation in May 2015.

Drug prosecutors accused the trio of possessing cocaine for trading purposes and consuming cocaine.

J.J. was solely accused of possessing 2.3gm of cocaine and also possessing 0.16gm of the same drug for his personal consumption.

The three suspects pleaded not guilty before the Dubai Court of First Instance on Sunday and refuted the accusation of possessing drugs for trading purposes.

T.K. and J.J. confessed to the presiding judge that they consumed drugs unlike E.J. who contended: “I did not possess or consume.”

The Spanish suspect admitted that he possessed cocaine for his personal consumption as well.

An anti-narcotics police lieutenant claimed to prosecutors that an informant alerted them that the Australian suspect possessed cocaine that he wanted to sell for Dh50,000.

“We commissioned the informant to communicate with E.J. and arrange to meet him to buy the drugs. The latter agreed to meet the informant and strike the deal in a petrol station near Dubai airport. Considering that a petrol station is an inconvenient and unsafe place for a sting operation, we talked to the informant to rearrange plans with the suspect to change the location … the two agreed to meet in a hotel in Al Muraqqabat. T.K. was the one who showed up during the deal and handed the drugs over to the informant … an undercover police team raided the location and apprehended the Syrian suspect. Later on we obtained prosecutors’ warrant and apprehended the Spanish suspect at Dubai Marina area … at the time of J.J.’s arrest, he had been consuming cocaine since traces of the white substance were seen around his nose. The Australian suspect was apprehended three days later in Deira. Primary interrogations revealed that the drug belonged to E.J., who had tasked T.K. with selling the drug for Dh50,000 against a Dh10,000 commission,” claimed the lieutenant.

The trial continues.