DUBAI // A sailor has been jailed for seven years and fined Dh50,000 for smuggling 2,480 tramadol pills.
The Iranian man was caught with the bag of drugs on a boat to Dubai on February 27.
AS, 36, claimed to Custom Officers that an Emirati man met him in Iran and asked him to carry the drugs to Dubai for Dh500.
Officers said that shortly after he confessed to having them, he changed his story and said the drugs did not belong to him.
A forensics report confirmed that finger prints taken from the tablets were from the defendant.
At Dubai Criminal Court on Tuesday he denied the charges, claiming he brought the drugs for personal use and not for distribution.
The defendant will be deported after completing his jail term.
salamir@thenational.ae