DUBAI // A passenger in transit was caught at Dubai airport with nearly a kilogram of cocaine concealed in his body, a court heard.
The Ecuadorean, 32, confessed to a charge of smuggling drugs when he appeared at Dubai Criminal Court on Thursday.
On March 31, the defendant suffered a head injury at Dubai International Airport. Court records did not explained how the injury occurred.
“I was approached by a duty-free employee who told me that there was a passenger who didn’t seem well and was bleeding from the head,” a policeman told the court.
The officer approached the passenger and spoke to him in English, but the man did not respond. The officer said he took the man to the airport police office at Terminal 3 and asked that medics help.
“He refused medics’ help, so I took him to the clinic, where he started acting suspiciously and refused any treatment,” the policeman said. The man was later referred to Rashid Hospital.
After two days at the hospital, a Spanish-speaking doctor managed to communicate with the defendant, who confessed to him that he was carrying condoms filled with drugs in his stomach.
Thirty condoms containing 902.8 grams of cocaine, mixed with liquid, were taken out of the man’s body, after which he tried to escape three times, according to court records.
He awaits a verdict on August 22.
salamir@thenational.ae
