Dubai court sentences man to life in jail for smuggling drugs inside model boats

Customs officers found 600 grams of marijuana concealed inside wooden model boats

Dubai Criminal Court sentenced the man to life imprisonment and fined him Dh500,000.

Dubai Criminal Court has sentenced a Kenyan citizen to life imprisonment for smuggling drugs into the UAE.

The man, 33, was also fined Dh500,000.

Judges were told the man had asked a family member in Kenya to send him marijuana using courier services.

Around 600 grams of the substance was stashed inside ten wooden model boats and dispatched to Dubai.

Customs officers took notice of the peculiar shipment, and upon conducting a search, found five plastic bags filled with the drug concealed inside the models.

The shipment was returned to the courier for delivery to the defendant, with police maintaining surveillance.

When the man arrived along with a friend on September 1 last year to collect the shipment, both men were arrested and taken into custody.

Urine tests confirmed that both men had used drugs.

The friend admitted to drug consumption during the investigation, and told officers that the defendant had supplied him with the drugs.

Prosecutors charged the Kenyan man with smuggling drugs into the country and with facilitating drug consumption.

He originally admitted to both offences during interrogation, but later changed his plea in court.

He was convicted of both charges and will be deported after serving his prison sentence.