5 in prison for drug trafficking

A Lebanese visitor, 52, was sentenced to life in prison on Monday by the Court of First Instance for smuggling cocaine for trafficking. Four others, including a Lebanese national, two Emiratis and a French national, were sentenced to four years each in prison for using and possessing drugs. The Lebanese and the French defendants will be deported after serving their jail terms as per the court’s order. The visitor was arrested in the early hours of September 29 last year at Dubai International Airport soon after he emerged from a flight from Lebanon. The anti-narcotics officers of the police had learnt that he would bring drugs with him. He admitted to the officers that he had cocaine hidden in his shoes and revealed that he was planning to sell it to some people. He said he would deliver the drugs to the Lebanese resident, 33, who had sent him $1,500. In the afternoon of that day, the two men met in the lobby of a hotel in Al Garhoud and the second suspect was caught after collecting a small plastic bag containing cocaine. He told the cops that he had met the visitor about six months earlier and he had bought drugs from him many times. He admitted that he had transferred $1,500 to the visitor about one month ago to get the cocaine for his personal use. The visitor told the cops about another customer, a 38-year-old Emirati manager. The manager was caught red-handed in his hotel room after collecting the cocaine from the visitor for which he paid Dh20,500. He revealed that he bought drugs many times from the Lebanese visitor and that he usually consumed it with a compatriot at a villa in Mirdiff. He also told them that he was planning to split the quantity he just collected with the French defendant. The French, a 28-year-old jobless, told police that he had taken drugs before for free from the manager. But this time he paid him Dh10,000 to get cocaine. The other Emirati, 35, was arrested  in a villa in Mirdiff on October 1 last year. He had sent $1,900 to the Lebanese visitor for cocaine.