DUBAI : A Dubai court jailed a Pakistani for 15 years for smuggling heroin in bags containing copies of the Quran, prayer mats and other religious paraphernalia, a report said Wednesday. The 30-year-old man, identified only by his initials MT, was convicted of possessing 24 kgms of heroin that was stashed in five bags with hidden compartments, the Gulf News daily said. “When we opened the bags, we found prayer mats, prayer beads and copies of the Quran along with food and the drugs,” a Dubai International Airport customs inspector was quoted as saying.
The defendant was fined 200,000 dirhams and will be deported after serving his sentence, the report said.