A tourist caught possessing more than seven kilogrammes of drugs to sell in Dubai has had his life sentence reduced to 10 years in prison.
The 29-year-old Iranian man was arrested on July 23, 2016 after police were tipped off that he was selling heroin, methamphetamines and Tramadol in Dubai International City.
According to court records, the man would tell his customers to hide money under a parked car of his choosing in the neighbourhood where he lived. He would then collect the money and replace it with the drugs.
At 11.40pm on the day of the incident, police followed the man out of his house to a car park where he was seen placing an object under the truck.
"We arrested him after he placed the drugs and attempted to leave," said the officer adding that the man admitted to leaving heroin under the truck.
"He told us that a drug dealer in Iran ordered him to leave the heroin there and told him another man would pick it up. We seized the object, it turned out to be a plastic bag containing heroin," said an Emirati lieutenant.
The defendant said he was in Iran when a drug dealer offered him money in return for going to the dealer's apartment in Dubai International City, picking up the drugs then delivering them to wherever the dealer chose.
"He promised to pay me Dh25,000 upon my return to Iran," the man said.
The apartment from where the accused took the drugs, was searched and more narcotics was found and seized.
"The defendant voluntarily directed us to pills stashed behind an oven," said the policeman.
Police found more drugs hidden under a sofa and money transfer receipts suspected to be linked to the drug peddling business.
Dubai Criminal Court convicted the man and sentenced him to life in prison but Dubai Court of Appeal reduced his sentence to ten years in prison to be followed by deportation.