DUBAI: Three passengers convicted of trying to transit through Dubai International Airport with 5.2kg of cocaine must see out their 10-year jail term and pay a fine of Dhs50,000 each.
The trio – a Brazilian MJ, 45, and two Nigerians RO, 31, and AK, 41 – were jailed for ten years and fined Dhs50,000 each to be followed by deportation by the Dubai Criminal Court. The Appeals Court upheld the ruling.
MJ was seized with a carton, packets and plastic bags containing several capsules stuffed with 5.160kg. Both RO and AK were implicated in MJ’s attempt to transit with the capsules on Nov.2 last year.
RO was seized with a capsule containing 20.31g and AK was seized with a capsule containing 20.25g. During court questing on May 25, MJ failed to enter a plea because there was no translator.
RO denied the first charge but admitted to the second one. “I had only one capsule… for personal use,” he said. AK argued that he was on his way to Nigeria and had nothing to do with the first charge. He said the 20.25g were for personal use.
Through a Portuguese translator on June 11, MJ contended that RO handed him a bag and begged him to carry it through the inspection area.
“He deceived me, saying it contained chocolates,” MJ claimed. RO refuted the claim.
On the airport’s security record, MJ told an Emirati police captain that he was on his way from Brazil when a Nigerian man requested he carry a bag of capsules that he would collect from him after the inspection area.
He pointed at the duo and explained that one of them was the owner of the bag. Both RO and AK confessed before a lieutenant that they came from Brazil with MJ and handed him the contraband to walk with it through the inspection area.
