Dubai: Two students have been accused of possessing a total of 42,600 tramadol tablets for trafficking and promotion purposes.
Drugs prosecutors charged a 20-year-old Iranian student, E.S., of possessing 23,800 tramadol tablets for trafficking purposes.
Meanwhile, a 24-year-old Emirati student, H.M., was charged with possessing 18,800 tramadol tablets for promotion purposes.
Prosecutors are seeking the implementation of the toughest punishment applicable [life sentence] against the defendants, who were also accused of consuming tramadol.
The Iranian was solely charged with allowing an Emirati teenager drive his vehicle although he does not hold a driving licence.
The duo pleaded not guilty and contended that they possessed the tramadol for consumption purposes when they showed up before the Dubai Court of First Instance on Monday.
“Drug enforcement officers seized the tablets in my possession… but they only seized 50 tablets and not 23,800 as claimed. I did not possess the tablets for trafficking purposes,” argued E.S. when he defended himself before presiding judge Ezzat Abdul Lat.
Meanwhile H.M. argued: “I was not caught in possession of any tablets. I did not touch the bag which drug officers claimed belonged to me… I wasn’t even aware that there were tablets inside the bag in the car. The bag did not even have my fingerprints.”
The Iranian student admitted that he consumed tramadol and that he allowed the teenage suspect [who is currently being prosecuted before the Dubai Juvenile Court] to drive the car without having a licence.
The Emirati also confessed to consuming tramadol.
An anti-narcotics policeman testified to prosecutors that an informant alerted them that E.S. possessed mind-altering substances in Al Warqa’a 1 in January.
“An anti-narcotics police squad headed to the location and spotted the Iranian student and the teenage suspect [identified as O.] in a car. We chased the car to Al Warqa’a 2 and forced them to pull over. O. was driving the vehicle. We foiled their attempt to run away… E.S. seemed to be under the influence of drugs. We searched them personally but they did not have anything. When we searched the car, we seized a number of wraps that contained Iranian tramadol tablets from the back seat. We confronted E.S., who confessed that his convicted brother had phoned him from inside the Sharjah jail [where he is serving a jail term] and asked him to communicate with an Iranian person to deliver the tablets to another person. The Iranian student admitted to us that he was supposed to be paid Dh3,000… he claimed that a stranger left the bag of tramadol tablets on a street in Ras Al Khaimah and he picked it up and brought it to Al Warqa’a. O. claimed that E.S. asked him to escort him,” the policeman claimed to prosecutors.
Records said H.M. was arrested in a sting operation the next day when he went to pick up the tramadol tablets.
Presiding judge Abdul Lat said the court will appoint a lawyer to defend H.M. on July 7.
E.S.’s lawyer asked the court to hear prosecution witnesses’ statements.
