DUBAI // A young Iranian couple was found with almost one kilogram of hashish meticulously hidden in their Barsha flat, a court heard yesterday.
Police found the drugs taped behind a wall-mounted flat screen television, inside a rubbish bin, and stuffed inside a pillow case, records show.
MORE UAE NEWS: Our pick of today's top local news stories
Unpaid workers on strike at Dh7bn Reem Island project More than 300 workers on the Tameer Towers project have not been paid since April and have stopped working on the development. Read article
Most private schools hold fees steady Fees rise an average of 12 per cent but only in 60 schools across the capital. Read article
Modern icons: towers that bend space and light The Etihad Towers are not yet finished but they already dominate in the Ras Al Akhdar district.
The defendants, MR, a 23-year-old salesman, and ZA, 19-year-old woman, were charged with possession of 970.33 grams of hashish. ZA was also charged with consumption of the controlled pain killer Tramadol.
Appearing before the Dubai Criminal Court of First Instance court yesterday, MR confessed to the charge of possession. ZA denied possession, but pleaded guilty to consuming Tramadol pills. She said she had been prescribed the drug.
According to anti-drugs officers' statements to prosecutors, MZ bought the drugs from a dealer in Sharjah on February 22, then rented a hotel apartment at the Avari al Barsha behind the Mall of the Emirates, where they hid the drugs. Police raided the flat the next day. The dealer was placed in custody by Sharjah police. "When we raided the apartment we saw ZA in an unnatural state. MR showed us where the drugs were and ZA told us that she had consumed Tramadol pills," an officer told prosecutors.
The chief narcotics prosecutor, Waleed al Fuqaie, in a statement last year, said: "I stress and vow that we will be very stringent with illegal traffickers and we will also prosecute any person who consumes Tramadol without a medical prescription."
