Dubai customer hides drugs in food order, asks rider to deliver it to jail

Dubai: A restaurant customer who conned a Dubai delivery man to unwittingly deliver drugs hidden inside a food order to inmates at a detention centre, has been sentenced to one year in jail.

According to the Dubai Court of First Instance, the delivery man, who works in a cafeteria near a police station, went to the policemen to deliver the food to inmates. A warden at the detention centre said the delivery man had brought eight orders of rice for inmates after the customer had posed as a policeman and bought the food, asking him to deliver it to inmates.

The warden searched the meals and found a lighter and tobacco inside one meal.

“The food was delivered from a nearby cafeteria. We found three pills inside the second meal. I suspected it might be drugs and arrested the [delivery man],” said the warden in official records.

What had happened

Policemen went to the cafeteria and questioned the staff, who said the customer had visited the restaurant and purchased the meals.

Dubai Police identified his vehicle based on the description provided by the staff. Police discovered the vehicle belonged to a man who had been earlier convicted for consuming drugs. According to the records, the court had then issued a fine of Dh2,000 to the defendant for consuming drugs while driving.

The delivery man identified the defendant to police through a picture of him.

The cafeteria owner testified that a staff member, who was the first to take the order from the defendant, had initially carried the food to his car. However, after a few minutes, the defendant asked the cafeteria to instead deliver the food to the police station.

The meals were then handed over to the delivery man to take it to the police station. The delivery man was cleared while the defendant was sentenced to one year in jail.