Businessman caught with 150,000 Tramadol tablets at Jebel Ali Port

DUBAI // A man caught with nearly 150,000 Tramadol tablets at Jebel Ali Port told a court that he was not smuggling them into Dubai but to another country through the city.

Pakistani businessman MS, 45, is charged with possessing and smuggling 149,460 Tramadol tablets. He confessed at the Dubai Criminal Court this morning but said he was taking them to Malaysia.

Prosecutors said police were tipped off in February about two containers, one of which was prepared for shipping but had been left neglected by its sender for two weeks.

When the unattended container was searched, it had food and medicine inside as well as two boxes that were found to contain the painkiller Tramadol, said prosecutors.

The other box contained the banned substance niswar. Police arrested the defendant who willingly confessed that all the contents of the containers belong to him, said MG, the custom group head at Dubai Customs.

MG said the defendant did not present a document to clarify the content of his containers before shipping them outside the country, which raised suspicions.

The defendant told police that the reason the container had been left unattended was because it was shipped to Malaysia but was then returned because the recipient refused to sign the receipt.

The next hearing will be on November 26.

salamir@thenational.ae