Police arrest five drug dealers in Dubai over 20kg heroin possession

Dubai Police said on Tuesday that they arrested five individuals who smuggled 20 kg of heroin into the UAE.

The Dubai Police Anti-Narcotic Department arrested the drug dealers at a Dubai hotel on Monday, March 19, reported Gulf News.

Speaking to the newspaper, the commander-in-chief of Dubai Police, Maj. Gen. Abdullah al-Merri, said that the drugs were smuggled into the country onboard commercial ships.

The suspects were arrested in an “undercover operation” where a police officer was sent as a potential drug buyer to negotiate a 2.2kg heroin purchase.

Assistant commander-in-chief for the Criminal Investigation Affairs department, Maj. Gen. Khalil Ebrahim al-Mansouri, the gang arrested were of European, African and Asian nationalities.

“The three Asian men smuggled the drugs in a commercial ship and then arrived to Dubai International Airport in different timing and stayed in different hotels. The gang were professional and organized,” said al-Mansouri.

Detailing events that took place during the operation, director of the Anti-Narcotic Department at Dubai Police, Brigadier Eid Mohammad Thani Hareb, said: “We raided the location in a parking lot in a hotel. We arrested the European while he was handing over the drugs and arrested the African suspect who was with him. We searched his apartment and found the drugs hidden in his closet.”