Dubai Criminal Court sentenced two Africans to seven years in jail to be followed by deportation and fined them Dhs200,000 each for bringing in and possessing 1,200 psychotropic substances.

Earlier, a customs inspector at Dubai International Airport suspected the suitcase of one of the defendants who was coming from his home country. The inspector stated that he noticed something abnormal in the defendant’s suitcase while it was passing through the x-ray baggage scanner.

When he asked the defendant if he had any prohibited items in his suitcase, the latter denied he added.

The inspector stated in the interrogations that after he asked the defendant and his suitcase to undergo a personal search, a large quantity of tablets suspected to be psychotropic substances were found. The airport police were notified accordingly and the defendant was consequently arrested.

A policeman stated in the interrogations that the defendant confessed to having received the seized items inside the suitcase from another person in his home country, who alleged that the items were foodstuffs and should be delivered to a woman and that the latter would receive him upon his arrival at Dubai International Airport to take the suitcase from him.

The defendant showed messages indicating that the woman had communicated with him via WhatsApp but he denied knowing that there were psychotropic substances inside his suitcase, the policeman added.

The policeman said he followed up on the messages between the two defendants and the woman was arrested in the arrivals hall.

The woman admitted that she came to the airport to receive a suitcase at the request of her brother who was in their home country but she was unaware of the contents of the suitcase.

According to a report issued by Dubai Police’s forensic laboratory, the seized items were 1,200 tablets of psychotropic and narcotic substances listed in schedule no. 8 of the narcotics and psychotropic substances law.