DUBAI // Two unemployed friends and a sailor were caught trying to smuggle more than 125kg of crystal meth into the country, the Criminal Court heard today.
Prosecutors said the two Iranians MR, 35 and BF, 30, were found with the drug wrapped in 117 plastic bags.
AH, a 37-year-old police major, said the anti-narcotics department had been tipped off that the men would try to smuggle the drugs through Dubai Marina near the Sheraton Hotel on February 10 this year.
A police team tracked down one of the men, BF, and put him under surveillance. They saw him taking ten boxes from the sailor RA, a 40-year-old Iranian, and loading them onto his rental car shortly after midnight. Two of the boxes were kept on the front seat and the remainder were put in the boot.
Police then followed the man to the Springs area, where his friend MR got into his car. Police then arrested the two men. While under interrogation BF told officers that he was planning to ship the drugs to Thailand. They then searched his house in the Springs area and found more drugs hidden inside a number of small refrigerators.
Officers then raided the ship on which the sailor was working, and arrested him and one of his fellow crew members, 24-year-old TP, also from Iran, who was in possession of 0.27 grams of opium. He was charged with possessing the drug for his own use.
None of the four men entered a plea.
The next hearing will be on October 7.
salamir@thenational.ae