DUBAI // A transit passenger who was found with almost two kilograms of cocaine stashed in his shorts has had his 10-year sentence upheld by Dubai Court of Appeal.
Guinean Q F, 34, denied that he was smuggling drugs and claimed that he did not know the powder was cocaine.
He was found to have 16 plastic bags containing 1.8kg of the drug in his shorts when he arrived at Dubai airport on May 16 on a flight from Brazil.
Airport policeman M A, 35, said: “I asked for his passport then suspected in him due to his behaviour, so I took him to the search room and there I found that he had a small secret pocket in the filling of his shorts, inside which he had hidden a number of plastic bags, each containing cocaine.”
The officer said the defendant confessed immediately when asked about the drugs but said that a friend of his asked him to carry the bags to Ivory Coast in return for cash.
The criminal court convicted him in October and sentenced him to 10 years to be followed by deportation, with a fine of Dh50,000, which was all upheld by the appeals court.
salamir@thenational.ae
