DUBAI // A motorist caught driving under the influence of drugs with 1,600 tramadol tablets in his car has been jailed for 13 months.
B A, 28, an unemployed Emirati, was “almost asleep at the wheel” when a police patrol stopped his car on April 1 this year.
“We saw the car in Al Warqaa 2 and the driver looked like he was sleeping, so we asked for another patrol as backup before we approached,” said policeman S D, 23.
He said officers stopped the car and the passenger A H, 27, also an unemployed Emirati, handed him a plastic bag filled with tramadol tablets.
“I asked him for his ID and instead he gave me the bag,” said the policeman.
A search of the car uncovered another plastic bag containing tramadol tablets. Both men had traces of the drug in their system.
They both denied possessing drugs at the Criminal Court but were convicted and each jailed for a year. The driver was given an additional month for driving while under the influence of drugs.
The court also fined each of them Dh20,000.
salamir@thenational.ae
