Three visitors get life sentences for drug peddling and possession

Dubai: Three African visitors will each spend 25 years in jail after a court found them guilty of trying to sell nearly 600 grams of drugs to an anti-narcotics policeman in the course of a sting operation.

The Dubai Court of First Instance awarded two Nigerians, 32-year-old G.A. and 28-year-old O.K., and 29-year-old Ghanaian, G.K., a life sentence each (25 years according to UAE laws) followed by deportation.

Presiding Judge Abdul Majid Al Nezamy, who pronounced the verdict, acquitted a 30-year-old Nigerian suspect, L.N., of charges of possessing and peddling drugs.

The Public Prosecution had charged G.A., L.N., O.K. and G.K. with possessing 350 grams of marijuana and 2.32 grams of heroin with the intention to sell the drugs.

The court, however, acquitted G.K. of consuming tetra-hydro cannabinol, an active component of hashish.

L.N., G.K. and O.K. pleaded not guilty in court.

An anti-narcotics police captain, who was part of the squad which arrested the visitors in a sting operation, testified: "An informant tipped the anti-narcotics police that G.A. possessed heroin and was searching for someone to buy it... he handed a 2.9 gram pouch of heroin as sample to the informant. We arranged through the informant to buy one kilogram of hashish for Dh6,000."

An anti-narcotics team monitored the place where the trade happened. The captain said in his statement that the police photocopied the money to be used as future evidence against the suspects in court.

Public Prosecution had charged the men with possessing 350 grams of marijuana and 2.32 grams of heroin.