Traveller's attempt to hide heroin among religious items foiled, jailed 15 years

The Dubai Criminal Court of First Instance sentenced a Pakistani visitor to 15 years in jail and ordered him to pay Dh200,000 as fine for smuggling 24kg of heroin.

The convict, MT, 30, Pakistani, who hid in secret pockets made in five bags that contained Holy Qurans, rosaries and praying carpets besides food, was also ordered to be deported after serving his jail term.

According to the records, a customs inspector assigned to check luggage in Dubai International Airport’s Terminal 3 noticed abnormal thickness in the bottom of two bags belonging to a passenger. His colleague also noticed similar abnormal thickness in three bags which belonged to the same passenger.

“The five bags contained Holy Qurans, rosaries, praying carpets belonging to one passenger. The bags were released and put on the belt and put under observation,” testified customs inspector Humaid Maher.

The visitor passenger MT, 30, Pakistani, appeared and picked up his bags. After he picked them up, the bags were searched.

“We did not find anything except Holy Qurans, praying carpets, rosaries and some clothes. We emptied one of the bags, and exposing it to X-ray, the same abnormal thickness at the bottom appeared. Checking the bottom, I noticed that the centre of the bottom was harder. Opening the zip and checking between the two bars of the handle, I noticed that a cover was made in between and, underneath it, there was a packet wrapped with scotch tape and contained a powder that looked like heroin. Similarly, heroin packets were hidden in each of the other four bags,” customs inspector Mohammed Saeed told investigators.

Criminal Evidences reported that the five confiscated packets contained a total of 24kg of the narcotic.

The accused denied knowledge of the heroin in his bags when he appeared before the court.
 

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