DUBAI // A 24-year-old sailor has had his 15-year jail term for smuggling 258 kilograms of hashish into the country reduced to five years by Dubai Court of Appeal.
Iranian M M confessed to smuggling the drug to sell it when he appeared at Dubai Criminal Court last September and asked for mercy.
Prosecutors said the sailor was arrested after the Dubai Police’s anti-narcotics department received a tip-off about him. On March 9 last year, he was arrested in a sting operation in Naif, Deira.
Emirati Lt Col A A testified that he had been among the arresting officers and had seen the sailor standing next to a suspicious bag, which was later found to contain 50kg of hashish.
“He looked very scared and tense,” said A A. “He made a call and then, when he was arrested, confessed he possessed more hashish hidden in a boat.”
Police searched the boat and found plastic barrels filled with the drug.
The man told another arresting officer that he was directed to distribute hashish in the UAE by a man who calls him from outside the country.
The court fined M M Dh200,000 and ordered the confiscation of his boat, penalties that were both upheld by the appeal court. The Iranian will be deported after completing his jail term.
salamir@thenational.ae
