DUBAI// Police seized more than six kilogrammes of cocaine being smuggled thorough Dubai airport in one day.
The drugs were being smuggled by two people in separate incidents on April 22. Both suspects were travelling from South America and transiting through the airport when they were arrested.
"We had refrained from announcing the two cases until all the elements in the cases have been completed," said Major General Abdul al Jaleel al Mahdi, director of the anti-narcotic department at Dubai Police.
In the first case, police stopped H B, 43, an unemployed man from an unnamed Arab country, after they received information he was carrying large quantities of drugs. He was travelling from Sao Paulo to Damascus via Dubai.
H B was found with 5.2 kilogrammes of cocaine, worth in total about Dh700,000, wrapped on his legs in four different plastic parcels.
The suspect reportedly told police that he received the drugs from someone in Brazil and was asked to smuggle it in return for US$3,000.
In the second smuggling attempt, police received information that Y A, 30, also unemployed from an unnamed Arab country, was in possession of drugs.
Once he reached transit he was stopped and searched. A total of 21 capsules of cocaine, weighing in all 290 grams, was found in his underwear while had has swallowed another 60 capsules, weighing in total 920 grams.
He was travelling from Sao Paulo to Abidjan in Côte d'Ivoire.
The suspect reportedly told police he had met a man in Morocco who offered him US$3,000 to smuggle the drugs. He travelled to Sao Paulo where he received the cocaine.
The two suspects have been referred to the public prosecution.
wissa@thenational.ae
