Five get the nick for 3.2 million banned pills

Hamza M Sengendo, Staff Reporter

Five Arab men caught attempting to smuggle 3.2 million psychedelic pills abroad were on Monday jailed for seven years and fined Dhs200,000 each.

The Arab men (all drivers aged between 32 and 52) possessed with the intention of peddling 3,203,534 pills  of amphetamine weighing 505.4 kilogrammes in total, Al Muraqqabat Police Station records showed.

During questioning at the Dubai Criminal Court on May 6 they denied the charge. The court on Monday jailed them for seven years plus deportation and fined them. It also ordered the seized drugs be confiscated.

On the record, a police major said a source alerted them that a regional drug smuggling kingpin was in contact with a trucking company driver. He had tasked the driver to smuggle some to a neighbouring country.

Police zeroed in on the driver in Al Rigga. He appeared cautious as he drove from street to street while keeping a lookout. They tailed him and intercepted him at the entrance of a building in Al Muteena area.

They searched the car and seized several travel bags, plastic bags and sacks stuffed with pills. Upon arrest he told police that his colleague had handed him a key to his apartment used as a den for their activities.

They habitually smuggled Naswar and banned cigarettes abroad. Police arrested the colleague in Abu Dhabi. He confessed to have received and kept drugs in the apartment. He added that a man contacted him and tasked him and his cousin with smuggling drugs.

He offered them Dhs200,000. He and his cousin accepted. Shortly, they contacted the driver to join them.

The cousin feared that one of the drivers might be an informer. The colleague summoned his roommate to replace the cousin.

Police learnt that another bag full of drugs was with the gang’s countryman. Upon his arrest he said he handed it to a workmate. Police arrested the latter. He tried to deny but they combed his truck and landed on it.