In Dubai for 'job', youth caught with drugs in peanut butter; jailed

Dubai - Public prosecution highlights story of man who trusted a stranger and transported his goods.

Sahim Salim

Published: Wed 7 Jul 2021, 12:30 PM

Last updated: Thu 15 Jul 2021, 11:52 AM

Authorities in Dubai have highlighted why individuals must not be drawn into transporting goods when lured with the chance to travel to the UAE.

The Dubai Public Prosecution narrated a story where an unemployed youth was trapped into smuggling drugs in what he thought was peanut butter.

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Suleiman has been jailed for six months and faces deportation at the end of the term.

Taking to Instagram, the authority said 20-year-old Suleiman was on the verge of becoming a thief or a beggar as the going got tough in his home country.

Suleiman was sitting in front of a shop near his family's house, when a person identified as Iqbal approached him.

On realising that Suleiman was jobless, Iqbal offered him a chance to travel to the UAE. He was to deliver some goods to a man who would receive him at the airport.

Suleiman was assured that he'd be given a "suitable job with good salary and housing".

"Without hesitation, Suleiman flew to the UAE and arrived in the morning," the prosecution said.

He was stopped in the baggage inspection area at the Dubai International Airport and his bags were X-ray scanned.

A customs inspector found a box containing peanut butter. He found plastic rolls containing herbs of narcotic marijuana stuffed inside. Suleiman was immediately placed under arrest for smuggling narcotics.

According to the public prosecution, the man who came to receive Suleiman was arrested after he went in to enquire why the former was not coming out of the airport.

It later emerged that this individual was not aware Suleiman was carrying narcotics.

"The second accused was not the person who was supposed to receive Suleiman. He went there on his colleague's request. This colleague is absconding," the authority said.

The prosecution urged residents to not trust strangers "who make you a bait and tool for transporting suspicious goods".

"When you are entrapped in the circle of contraband and prohibitions, they will be the first ones to abandon you and flee."