Agonised look betrays drug mule at airport

Hamza M Sengendo, Staff Reporter

A drug mule struggling to negotiate his way out of an airport inspection room was betrayed by his agonised look, a gathering heard on Tuesday.

The Asian defendant – a visitor, 23 – walked into Dubai World Central (DWC) Airport with 12 capsules inside his guts. They contained methamphetamine weighing 167.47 grammes in total, prosecutors explained.

Prosecutors accused him of having intended to peddle them.

The Dubai Criminal Court modified the charge, ruled out the intention to peddle and charged him with bringing the capsules under illicit circumstances.

He confessed and said he had brought them for personal use.

He asked for mercy. Judge Sheikha Hamad Al Ghafli set Sept.22 for the ruling. 

An Emirati customs inspector said, “A female colleague suspected and referred him to me. He told me he had nothing to declare. I searched his bag and found nothing illegal. Meanwhile, I realised he was in agony.”

The inspector revealed he had the defendant walk through a body scanner and detected suspicious lumps inside his stomach. The defendant on being confronted said they were capsules containing narcotics.

Separately, a drug smuggling visitor who nearly lost his life after swallowing meth-stuffed capsules was sent to spend seven years behind bars and slapped with a Dhs50,000 fine to be followed by deportation.

The Asian defendant, 27, arrived in Dubai with 17 capsules containing methamphetamine weighing 180.18 grammes in total. A building’s watchman landed on him lying in its basement. He was in deep sleep.

The watchman after failing to wake him up contacted the police. Policemen picked him up and referred him to the Dubai Police’s Criminal Investigations Department’s office at Bur Dubai Police Station.

An Emirati corporal said, “The defendant was speaking abnormally and kept asking us for water.

He failed to walk upright. He also could not sit properly. He kept stretching on the office’s chair and raising his legs.”

He revealed there were capsules in his stomach making him very uncomfortable. A drug dealer had tasked him to deliver them to a recipient in reward for a sum of money.