Men intended to sell 1kg of heroin in Dubai, court hears

One of the three men had stashed some of the drugs in an AC unit outside a shopping centre.

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Three workers are accused of possessing one kilogramme of heroin to sell, some of which they stashed inside a shopping centre’s AC unit for safekeeping.

Two of the Pakistani men, aged 21 and 22 each, told judges the heroin was for their personal use but their 24-year-old accomplice admitted they had intended to sell the drugs.

According to court records, Dubai Police’s anti-narcotics obtained an arrest warrant for the men after being tipped off about the trio.

On January 17 this year, the youngest man was arrested at his Sharjah home at 11.45am but police did not find the drugs there, according to a 41-year-old Emirati police major.

“We questioned him if he had drugs at all and he took us to where he hid them outside a shopping mall on Al Wahda road in Sharjah,” he said.

The drugs were kept in a plastic bag wrapped in a white cloth and stashed inside part of an AC unit in a shopping centre, he said.

“The part of the AC unit was from outside the shopping centre, and he said that he was directed by a man in Pakistani to hide it there.

“He gave us the man’s name and we checked him in our data base, we found that he had been jailed and deported in a drug case,” the police offer said.

The man also admitted to renting a second home in Sharjah where he hid drugs.

“We raided the house the same day and found the other two defendants there. They were arrested and we found some drugs in the possession of the older defendant and more drugs in the apartment,” he said.

Police said all three men admitted to possessing drugs to sell during questioning.

They said they were paid by the man in Pakistan for each drug sale and that they received the drugs through middle men.

The next hearing will be on August 17.