Dubai: Three truck drivers have been jailed for 10 years each for possessing nearly 6.9 kilogrammes of different kinds of drugs that they were planning to smuggle to Kuwait.
Acting upon an informant’s tipoff, drug enforcement officers summoned the three Pakistani truck drivers, aged between 24 and 33, to the customs office when they reached Al Ghuwaifat border checkpoint.
They were arrested when upon searching their vehicles, several pouches of drugs and mind-altering substances were found hidden in the trucks waiting to cross the border into Saudi Arabia.
The Dubai Court of First Instance also fined each of the defendants Dh100,000 for possessing 3kg of heroin and 3.9kg of methamphetamine pills for promotional purposes.
According to the primary ruling, the trio will be deported following the completion of their punishments.
The 33-year-old defendant pleaded guilty in court.
The other two defendants denied possessing the banned substances for promotional purposes.
An anti-narcotics police major testified that the defendants were apprehended in cooperation with Abu Dhabi Police at Al Ghuwaifat border point.
“We searched the drivers but did not find any banned substances on them. When we asked them if they had kept any drugs in the trucks, they admitted and showed us where the drugs were hidden … one of them had hidden three pouches of methamphetamine pills in a pocket on the backside of the truck. After a special scanning device detected drugs in another truck, more drugs were found hidden in a secret pocket in the driver’s cabin. One of the seized bags contained nearly 3kg of heroin.
“During questioning, one of them claimed that he had collected the drugs from a Pakistani man in Ras Al Khor area and then he stacked them in his truck in order to smuggle them into Kuwait via Saudi Arabia. He also claimed that he was supposed to smuggle the drugs into Saudi Arabia for Dh10,000,” the police major said.
The defendants have already appealed their primary judgement and will appear before the Appeal Court later this month.
