Sisters tried to smuggle ‘hash brownies’ through Dubai airport

Two sisters in their twenties were caught last August when they touched down at Dubai International Airport on a flight from Spain.

DUBAI // Marijuana hidden in cakes was one ploy used to smuggle drugs, airport police say.

Two sisters in their 20s were caught last August when they arrived at Dubai International Airport on a flight from Spain.

They thought the Dubai Customs officials would not find the 10 hash brownies on them.

The pair told investigators that they brought the drugs into the UAE for personal use. A urine test showed the two of them had taken the drug recently, and they were detained.

In a separate case at the airport, a Pakistani woman with more than 11,000 Xanax pills taped to her torso was arrested last June.

She said a dealer in Pakistan told her he would pay her 100,000 rupees (Dh3,500) to smuggle them to Dubai, prosecutors said.

In another case, a Nigerian woman was arrested at Dubai airport for trying to smuggle more than 5 kilograms of marijuana last December. She was sentenced to 10 years in jail.

“Many drug gangs in Asia and Africa take advantage of people’s situations, such as a low level of awareness of laws in some cases and economic hardship in others,” said Ahmed Saif, a Dubai prosecutor.

“They use them as mules because they believe security officers at the airport would doubt that women, children, or even families would try to smuggle drugs. They target women with minors, paying them what would be a lot of money in their home country.”

He said airport authorities remained vigilant to the drug gangs’ smuggling efforts.