Dubai: A housewife has been accused of smuggling and possessing around 2,400 banned pills that were found hidden in her luggage when she arrived at Dubai airport.
The 33-year-old Indian housewife was said to have wrapped the Pregabalin drug in her clothes and put them in the luggage before airport officers found them and stopped her at the arrivals terminal.
Prosecutors accused the 33-year-old housewife of smuggling and possessing banned substances.
A 64-year-old Indian worker was also accused of aiding and abetting the housewife.
Jail wardens did not bring the suspects from their detention and present them before the Dubai Court of First Instance where they were scheduled to enter their pleas on Wednesday.
According to the charge sheet, prosecutors said the woman suspect smuggled and possessed 2,400 tablets of Pregeb 150 that contains Pregabalin, a banned drug.
A woman Customs inspector claimed to prosecutors that her partner asked her to search the housewife’s luggage once she arrived at the Customs counter at 6am.
“I accompanied the woman to a search room after the scanning device showed some strange objects in her bag. When I asked her if she was carrying any items that required declaration, she did not respond. She opened the bag after I asked her to do so … then I found 240 medicine strips wrapped inside her clothes. When I confronted her with the findings, she alleged that they are medicine that she brought for her sick relative [the 64-year-old worker]. The woman was then taken into custody and handed over to Dubai Police’s anti-narcotics police,” the inspector testified to prosecutors.
Records did not mention how the 64-year-old suspect was apprehended.
Presiding judge Fahd Al Shamsi adjourned the hearing until the suspects are brought from their detention centre to attend the upcoming hearing on December 7.
