UAE hotelier gets four years for drug possession

A UAE hotel manager who was arrested for the possession and consumption of cocaine has been sentenced by a Dubai court to four years in prison, reports The National.

After reportedly receiving a tip off, Dubai police arrested the 43-year-old Swiss hotelier, NL, in Dubai Marina and found a plastic bag containing 0.74 grams of cocaine in his possession. A later forensic report also showed NA’s urine sample contained both cocaine and benzyolecgonine, an active metabolite in cocaine.

HB, 36, an Emirati police captain, reportedly told Dubai Criminal Court: "When we arrested him he confessed that he had consumed cocaine about an hour before his arrest.

NL's villa in Ajman was also searched by police and another plastic bag was found containing more of the drug, the court was told.

Prosecutors said his blood sample contained traces of the drug. NL confessed to consuming and possessing drugs, but he denied he knew the substance was cocaine.