Dubai: Drug supplier sentenced to life in prison after chain of arrests
Dubai Criminal Court sentences 35-year-old Bangladeshi man to life in prison for drug trafficking. He had marijuana on him and tried to sell it with an accomplice.
The arrest, made by a unit of police from the Anti-Narcotics Department of Umm Al Quwain Police in Dubai’s Al Nahda district, followed a preplanned sting operation.
It started in August 2023 when the 30 year-old Jordanian man arrested was found drugged and admitted to buying marijuana from his brother-in-law, a 33-year-old Sudanese man.
The Sudanese man was nabbed in September 2023 in Dubai near Festival City after he was observed parking in a parking lot. He brought the police to his apartment in Dubai Sports City where they found drugs.
He told me he had got the chemicals from the Bangladeshi guy, later identified as the main dealer. The Sudanese man admitted to buying cannabis from the Bangladeshi suspect dozens of times, for Dh300 to Dh500 a pop.
This gave the police a warrant to arrest the Bangladeshi man. A sting was organised in Al Nahda 1 next to Gold Luck Supermarket, along with the Sudanese guy, who offered to make another drug deal.
The Bangladeshi man tried to escape on foot but was arrested by the police during the raid. They searched him, and found a baggie of a black liquid, believed to be cannabis, in the right pocket of his blue jeans. When they raided his apartment at Al Jabri building in Al Nahda, they discovered more cannabis under the bathroom ceiling and a scale under his bed.
An analysis by the lab confirmed that the seized materials were cannabis and its derivatives, which weighed in at about 193.13g.
They also recorded conversations between the Bangladeshi man and other individuals about drug sales. Forensic testing of his mobile phone turned up damning WhatsApp chats in which he spoke about numerous drug deals, by code names such as "paper" and "lulu".
A few police officers also gave evidence to the court, which revealed the supplier as the Bangladeshi man.
The Bangladeshi suspect pleaded not guilty to the allegations in court through video link. But the testimony, the forensics report and his prior confessions were evidence against him, and the court sentenced him to drugs trafficking.
He was sentenced to life in prison (the UAE law gives 25 years). He will be deported when he is out of prison. The Sudanese and Jordanian men who took part were already charged and tried for their role.
The decision was retried, and will go before Dubai’s Appeal Court on January 22 next year.
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