Taxi driver caught smuggling drugs in dictionaries

A CONFUSED cabbie has been caught by customs officials smuggling marijuana into the UAE inside dictionaries at Dubai International Airport.

The Asian taxi driver was stopped by Dubai Customs agents after appearing disorientated and was asked what country he came from.

They then X-rayed a box he was carrying.

A customs source said: “They spotted a strange-looking cavity, which was then inspected manually. The agents found some clothing, a medicine bag and some food and two English dictionaries, which contained a transparent plastic bag cunningly concealed in the middle pages of the books.

“They found dark-coloured leaves in the plastic bag, which turned out to be marijuana.”

There was 250g of the drug found in the books, which he claimed he was asked to deliver to someone in Dubai.

He has been detained by cops and will be referred to public prosecution.

In a separate drugs case, Dubai Police foiled a bid to smuggle 154kg of hashish out of the UAE and arrested an Asian man in connection with the case.

The head of anti-narcotic department at Dubai Police, General Abdul Jalil Mahdi, said the force got a tip-off that the man was searching for an assistant to help with the operation.

They got an undercover cop to arrange a meeting with the man to discuss the matter further.

Police said that when the man arrived for the meeting at a hotel in Naif he bought 50kg of the drug with him. He was arrested at the scene and a search of his home uncovered a further 104kg of hash.

Police dubbed the operation ‘Eid gift’ because the case was foiled days before the holy festival.

ali.shouk@7days.ae