Heroin dealer sentenced to life in prison and abuser to 6 months in UAE

Dubai Court of Appeal upheld a verdict issued by the Court of First Instance against two Asians convicted in a drug case.

The court sentenced the first defendant to life in prison for heroin trafficking, while the second defendant was sentenced to six months in jail for drug abuse. Both defendants will be deported after serving their sentences.

The verdict came after they had been caught red-handed inside a vehicle in Jebel Ali with plastic rolls containing heroin in their possession.

In January of last year, reliable information was received regarding the second suspect’s possession and abuse of narcotics in Jebel Ali Industrial Area.

A policeman reported that investigations confirmed the suspect was a drug abuser and possessed a quantity of drugs. A warrant was issued by Dubai Public Prosecution to arrest him.

The policeman stated in the interrogations that a team of detectives were able to locate the second suspect, who was arrested inside a vehicle he was driving with the first suspect.

They were both searched as a precaution and found to be in possession of materials suspected to be narcotics, while a plastic bag containing the same substance was found with the first suspect.

They were taken to the General Department of Anti-narcotics, where samples were taken from them, while the seized materials were transferred to the forensic laboratory.

After examining the materials seized with the defendants, the report of the General Department of Forensic Science and Criminology confirmed that they were plastic rolls containing heroin, a narcotic substance included in schedule 1 of the federal decree-law on combating narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances and its amendments. The sample of the second defendant also showed that he was a heroin abuser.

The second defendant admitted to being a heroin abuser and that he was in possession of a quantity of the drug at the time he was arrested, having purchased it from the first defendant for Dhs100.

The first defendant denied drug trafficking but evidence proved he was a heroin dealer and had sold a quantity of the drug to the second defendant.