DUBAI // A transit passenger caught at Dubai International Airport with almost 1 kilogram of cocaine in his belly will spend the next 10 years in jail.
On March 31, the 32-year-old Ecuadorian was arrested after suffering a head injury at the airport. Court records did not say how the injury occurred.
“I was approached by a duty-free employee who told me there was a passenger who didn’t seem well and was bleeding from the head,” a policeman said.
The officer approached the passenger and spoke to him in English, but the man did not respond. The officer took him to the airport police office in Terminal 3 and asked medics to treat him.
“He refused help, so I took him to the clinic where he started acting suspiciously,” the office said. He was later referred to Rashid Hospital.
After two days in hospital a Spanish-speaking doctor met with the defendant, who told him he was carrying condoms filled with drugs in his stomach.
A total of 30 condoms containing 902.8 grams of cocaine mixed with liquid were removed from his stomach.
The defendant confessed to a charge of smuggling drugs when he appeared at Dubai Criminal Court earlier this month.
He was also fined Dh50,000 and will be deported after serving his prison sentence.
salamir@thenational.ae
