KUWAIT CITY: Court fines smuggler Dh50,000 for intending to promote diazepam and heroin in Kuwait A driver has been jailed for 10 years for possessing 2.1kg of banned substances that he intended to smuggle into Kuwait for promotional purposes.
Drug enforcement officers arrested the 25-year-old Pakistani driver, M.Q., during a sting operation shortly after he talked an informant into smuggling the banned substances to Kuwait for Dh12,000 per kilogram.
The Dubai Court of First Instance also fined M.Q. Dh50,000 for possessing 303 capsules of heroin and diazepam weighing 2.13kg for promotional purposes.
Despite having entered a not guilty plea, according to judgment, M.Q. will be deported following the completion of his punishment.
The accused argued in court: “A person gave me that box and asked me to give it to someone else… but I did not know that it contained drugs. I had no clue what it contained at all.”
An anti-narcotics police lieutenant testified that he arranged for the sting operation to be carried out in April.
“An anti-narcotics police team was dispatched to Al Ghusais near the cattle market where the deal was scheduled to be sealed. I assigned one of the corporals to communicate with the defendant and arrange to meet him and pick up the drugs to smuggle them outside the country. Once the defendant arrived and handed over a nylon bag that contained the banned substances to the corporal, we raided the place and arrested M.Q. The seized drugs were wrapped with plastic tape. When I confronted the suspect, he admitted that the drugs belonged to him… he confessed that he was looking for someone to carry the drugs to Kuwait and hand them over to a person against Dh12,000 per kilogram,” claimed the lieutenant.
The primary ruling remains subject to appeal within 15 days.
