Dubai: Man jailed for 10 years for selling drugs on social media

An African man convicted of drug trafficking has been sentenced by a Dubai criminal court to 10 years in prison and fined 50,000 dirhams. He will be deported after serving 10 years in prison for trying to smuggle drugs into the country.

The suspect was apprehended by customs after attempting to smuggle 300 grams of narcotics through Dubai International Airport. When the box of the African national was inspected, packages suspected to be of prohibited items were seized. These were transferred to a laboratory and confirmed to contain drugs.

Defendant testified that the packages were brought from his home country as a gift to a friend of his.

The court rejected the defendant's claim that he was unaware that these were banned in the UAE and therefore found the defendant guilty so he was sentenced to the aforementioned penalty.