10-year jail term upheld for gang in possession of heroin

Dubai: Four men who hid 50 kilograms of heroin inside boxes of oranges with the intention of selling it had their ten-year jail term upheld on Wednesday.

The Dubai Appeal Court confirmed that each of the four Pakistani men, 27-year-old J.Z., 30-year-old A.S., 40-year-old M.H. and 22-year-old A.J., will spend ten years behind bars and pay a fine of Dh50,000.

The defendants were accused of possessing the heroin with intent to sell. Drug enforcement officers found the heroin secretly stacked in the bottom of boxes of oranges in five pick-up trucks.

The defendants, who pleaded not guilty, will be deported following the completion of their jail terms.

An Emirati police major said an informant alerted Dubai Police that J.Z. was expecting a drug consignment at the Fruit and Vegetable Market in Al Aweer.

“The informant said the defendant planned to store the drugs in a warehouse before delivering them to an African man. An anti-narcotics police team was dispatched to the market. Three of the defendants were in a car parked near a bank. Two of them walked towards the offloading area while the third drove the car to the spot where his associates had stopped. The fourth defendant came afterwards. Around 9pm police raided the area where the four defendants were standing near pick-up trucks. The drugs were stashed in small plastic sacks and two sacks were secretly pasted at the bottom of a box of orange. The defendants loaded boxes of oranges into five pick-up trucks that were meant to be transported outside the market,” said the major.

Prosecution records said police confiscated the pick-up trucks and accompanied the four defendants to the anti-narcotics department.

An Emirati anti-narcotics lieutenant said J.Z. admitted that they were supposed to hand over the drugs to a Nigerian man.

J.Z. said a Pakistani woman phoned him two weeks ahead of their arrest and asked him to take the drugs from the market and deliver them to the Nigerian.

Prosecution records said J.Z. met the Nigerian man in Sharjah, who paid him Dh6,500, of which Dh3,000 was to rent a warehouse and store the drugs and the balance for himself.

J.Z. said the Pakistani woman asked him to collect Dh15,000 from a cargo office in Sharjah to carry out the operation along with his associates.

Wednesday’s judgement remains subject to appeal before the Cassation Court within 30 days.