Holiday marijuana haul leads to jail for worker

Bangladeshi returned to the UAE with 3.6kg of the drug hidden in his luggage.

DUBAI // A worker returning to Dubai from holiday with 3.6 kilograms of marijuana in his luggage has been jailed for 10 years.

The Bangladeshi, 35, denied a charge of possessing drugs, saying that he knew nothing about them. He said people had given him gifts to be delivered to their family in Dubai.

“A man back home brought it to me in wraps and I didn’t see what was inside it,” he told judges at Dubai Criminal Court last month.

The man was stopped at Dubai International Airport on November 11 last year after arriving from Pakistan.

A Customs inspector scanned his luggage and found one bag was suspiciously thick. He said the Bangladeshi became tense when the bag was opened.

“We found marijuana in 54 wraps in the bottom of his bag. It was wrapped like it was candy,” said the inspector.

The worker was also fined Dh50,000 and will be deported after serving his prison term.

He can appeal against the sentence within 15 days.