DUBAI: A woman passenger has been jailed for ten years for smuggling 4.6kg of cocaine that she hid in her undergarments. A law enforcement officer apprehended the 42-year-old Zambian woman, O.M., as she walked suspiciously to the transit terminal at Dubai International Airport in April.
After searching her, O.M. was found to be wearing beige elasticised shorts in which she hid eight plastic pouches containing cocaine.
The Dubai Court of First Instance convicted O.M. after she pleaded guilty to possessing and smuggling drugs via Dubai in transit.
“Yes, I brought the cocaine with me,” she told the court.
Presiding judge Ezzat Mansour said the defendant will pay a fine of Dh50,000.
According to Monday’s ruling, the woman will be deported after serving her punishment.
According to the charge sheet, the accused hid 1.4kg of cocaine in the shorts and 3.2kg of the same drug in her underwear.
An anti-narcotics police sergeant testified that O.M. was stopped at the transit terminal shortly after her plane arrived from Brazil.
“When she arrived at the airport at 9.45pm, she was walking towards the transit terminal to continue her trip to Zambia. She seemed to be frightened and confused. The way she was moving, it was quite obvious that she was hiding something between her legs that was hindering her walk. I asked her to stop and accompany me to a private search room. Then I asked a policewoman to search her. The search resulted in finding the white substance that looked like cocaine hidden in the beige shorts. Upon confronting her with the findings, she admitted that it is a banned substance, contending that she did not know what type of drug it is. Then she claimed that she agreed to smuggle it from Brazil to Zambia via Dubai in transit for Dh18,400,” said the sergeant.
The primary ruling remains subject to appeal within 15 days.
