Dubai: A 65-year-old man, who was referred to the court on a charge of trading in narcotics, on Thursday denied the charges in front of the judge claiming that he didn’t sell or promote Tramadol pills and a friend entrusted him with the substance in a closed package without revealing the content.
The Pakistani man, A.S., was said to have possessed more than 10,000 pills of the banned substance of Tramadol which he intended to promote to others.
He was coincidentally exposed after Ajman Police arrested a drug peddler who snitched on A.S. alleging that the latter provided him with the drugs in Dubai.
Ajman Police immediately cooperated with Dubai Police’s anti narcotics department and A.S. was busted in a sting operation in the Naïf Area after police obtained a prosecutors’ permission to search and arrest A.S.
“I did not sell or promote drugs. I possessed the substances as a favour for a friend. He entrusted me to keep them, without me knowing what they contained. Honestly I was unaware that it was against the law to possess those substances,” the defendant was heard telling the Dubai Court of First Instance.
When asked by presiding judge Ali Atiyyah Sa’ad on whether he could afford a lawyer to defend him, A.S. replied: “No your honour. I cannot do so.”
Informant
According to the accusation sheet, drugs prosecution charged the Pakistani with possessing 10,310 Tramadol pills and 492 Procyclidine pills.
Procyclidine is an anticholinergic drug principally used for the treatment of Drug-induced Parkinsonism, Parkinson disease and others.
An Emirati anti-narcotics policeman testified that an informant alerted them that a Pakistani suspect named Amir possessed and consumed drugs.
“The informant also claimed that Amir possessed Tramadol pills and was looking for somehow to sell an amount for Dh8,000. We obtained prosecution permission to have Amir arrested in a sting operation. The latter was detained in a petrol station in Ajman immediately after he handed over the Tramadol drugs to the police informant. Police seized a large amount of Tramadol pills in the backseat of Amir’s car. During questioning, he confessed that A.S. gave him the Tramadol.
Search
“Police arranged with the same informant to strike a new deal and have A.S. detained in a sting operation. And that’s what happened, the 65-year-old was arrested carrying a box containing Tramadol pills in Naïf during a sting operation,” claimed the policeman.
Prosecution records said police seized 10,310 Tramadol pills and 492 Procyclidine pills in the residence of A.S. after a search by anti-narcotics enforcement officers.
Presiding judge Sa’ad adjourned the case to appoint a lawyer to defend A.S. when the court reconvenes on January 14.
