Dubai: A merchant has been jailed for two years for possessing 10 pouches of cocaine that drug enforcement officers seized from him at a luxurious hotel in Palm Jumeirah.
Dubai Police’s anti-narcotics department were alerted by an informant that the 38-year-old Armenian merchant possessed and consumed drugs at his hotel room in January.
A police team obtained a prosecutor’s search and arrest warrant and stopped the Armenian defendant in the hotel’s lobby.
Anti-narcotics policemen found two pouches of cocaine hidden in the left pocket of the merchant’s jacket.
On Monday, the Dubai Court of First Instance convicted the defendant of possessing 10 pouches of cocaine weighing 113 grams.
Presiding judge Urfan Omar said the defendant will be deported after serving his punishment.
The 38-year-old accused had pleaded guilty in the court.
“I did not had 10 pouches, I had only two,” he told the presiding judge.
An anti-narcotics police lieutenant said the suspect was arrested from the hotel at 10.30pm.
“We stopped the defendant once we saw him in the lobby, we identified ourselves and presented the prosecutors’ warrant. Two pouches were found in his pocket. Then he accompanied us to his room, where we found eight more pouches that had been wrapped in a small nylon bag and hidden in a drawer. The pouches had been wrapped in such a way that they were to be distributed. We also seized bank notes in various currencies that were believed to have been the proceeds of selling drugs. The suspect was taken into custody and sent for a drug test,” the lieutenant told prosecutors.
Available records did not mention whether the suspect had tested positive following his drug test.
The primary ruling remains subject to appeal.
