Dubai tourist caught with cocaine and party drug to spend life in jail, court rules

Police found 53 grams of cocaine and a total of 9,391 tablets of MDMA, a type of ecstasy, in the defendant’s possession.

DUBAI // A British tourist who was caught with cocaine and MDMA tablets has been handed life in prison by a Dubai court.

The man, 22, was convicted of selling and taking drugs.

He was arrested outside his flat in Dubai after the anti-narcotics unit received a tip-off last July.

Police found 53 grams of cocaine and 9,391 MDMA tablets, a type of methamphetamine, in the Briton’s possession.

“It was nearly 2am when we apprehended him under his residential building. He and his apartment were searched,” a police officer, 24, testified.

The officer said some tablets were found in the Briton’s pocket. Police also found eight mobile phones in the apartment that were used to sell drugs, a plastic bag with cocaine dust, and a weighing scale.

“We also found a large number of the tablets shaped like mushrooms in his apartment and hidden inside a plastic bag that was stashed inside another bag,” said the policeman.

The Briton confessed to selling and taking cocaine. In court, however, he only admitted to using drugs.

He can file an appeal against his sentence within the next 15 days.