4 OFWs face jail time in UAE due to drug charges

Four Filipinos in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) got jail terms – with two of them being sentenced to life imprisonment – after a court found them guilty of drug trafficking. A report on UAE-based news site Khaleej Times said the sentences stemmed from two separate cases brought before the Court of First Instance. In the first case, the Court of First Instance sentenced a Filipino waiter to life in prison followed by deportation and a fine of Dh50,000 (P629,205). The court also sentenced a Filipino woman to one year in prison and deportation for using a mind-altering substance after Dubai Anti-Narcotics police seized 0.16 gram of methamphetamine in her possession. The Filipino woman led one of the undercover police officers to the waiter who possessed methamphetamine and was willing to sell it, a captain in the police unit told prosecutors. One of the police officers posed as a potential buyer, according to the article. The waiter was arrested in Muraqqabaton on June 23 last year after he delivered the drugs. In the second case, a Filipino cleaning worker also got a life term from the Court of First Instance, which also ordered him to pay a fine of Dh50,000 (P629,205) for possession of methamphetamine for trafficking. Some 14 rolls containing methamphetamine weighing 2.61 grams were seized from the Filipino, the article stated. His accomplice, a compatriot driver, got a one-year prison term for using methamphetamine and amphetamine. Both will be deported after serving their sentences. A lieutenant in the Anti-Narcotics Unit of Dubai Police said an undercover agent struck a deal with the cleaning worker to buy drugs for Dh1,000. The worker was arrested on May 8 last year after he handed over a packet of drugs to the undercover officer. The worker also claimed he got the drugs from the driver. Police raided the driver’s room and found four rolls of methamphetamine he possessed for personal use. - RJAB Jr./GMANews.TV