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THESE ARE NOT BED TIME STORIES. THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS IN REALITY TO ALCOHOL AND DRUGS ABUSERS!
AS WE CAN SEE DRUG & ALCOHOL ABUSERS GET 4 TO 25 YEARS OF SENTENCE, OR LIFETIME TO EXECUTION.
THIS IS JUST ANOTHER GOOD REASON TO SAY "NO" TO DRUGS!

Britons get life in UAE drugs case:

RAS AL-KHAIMAH, United Arab Emirates -- Two British women in a drugs case have been sentenced to life in prison by a United Emirates court.

The life sentence against Anne Kidd, 32, and Anna Bartlett, 22 was handed down by an Islamic sharia court in the northern emirate of Ras Al-Khaimah, one of seven emirates that comprise the United Arab Emirates.

A third Briton, Daniel Maalouf, 28, received a 10-year sentence for "intending to trade in drugs."

All three have the option of appealing their convictions.

The three Britons were among six suspects -- including two other Britons and an Australian -- arrested last October and November in Ras al-Khamani and Dubai, and charged with possession and use of drugs and smuggling of hashish and cocaine to the UAE.

Of the six, only Maalouf and Bartlett have admitted to some of the charges, Reuters reported.

Under a 1995 law, drug-trafficking offences in the Emirates carry a possible death penalty. In practice, however, prisoners tend to receive life sentences and are often granted parole after 25 years.

The four judges who heard the case referred all six defendants to a court in neighbouring Dubai to face a second trial on similar drug-related charges.

In February, Bartlett, from Rochford, Essex, southern England, told the UAE court that she had given Stacy Simpson, another British defendant, some cocaine and hashish as a gift, but received no payment for it.

Simpson, 28, from Leeds, northern England, denied conspiring with Bartlett to import drugs into the Emirates. Simpson also denied possession, dealing in and use of cocaine, hashish and other tablets.

Simpson's girlfriend, Kidd, 32, also from Leeds, denied assisting Bartlett in bring hashish into the Emirates. She also denied possession and use of hashish, cocaine, methadone and morphine.

Last December, the UAE pardoned two other Britons for drug smuggling. Ian Bamling, a social worker, and Lyn Majakas, a head teacher at a school for special needs pupils were released early after serving a year of their four-and-a-half-year terms.

The pair had been arrested after being caught at Abu Dhabi international airport in October 1998 with a small amount of cannabis and bottles of alcohol.

The release was seen as a conciliatory gesture in line with the observance of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

Drug addict's death reveals major smuggling operation:

Ras Al Khaimah |By Nasouh Nazzal | 18-12-2000

The death of a UAE national in his home led police to uncover a drug smuggling operation. Major Jamal Ahmed Al Tair, head of the police Anti-Narcotics Department, said they were notified that the victim had died under mysterious circumstances in his home in a remote area of Ras Al Khaimah.

"As soon as I heard his name, I was 100 per cent sure that he had died of a drug overdose. He had a record with the Anti-Narcotics Department and had even served a prison term," Al Tair said.

Investigators searched the home and found drugs near the body. The post-mortem indicated that he had been taking drugs. Investigators began probing to see who was with the victim in the final hours before his death.

They arrested four other nationals, who denied taking drugs, but tests proved positive. Police raided their homes and recovered huge quantities of hashish. Al Tair said police are pursuing the case because they suspect that the gang consists of 10 or 12 people.

Defense opens in UAE drugs trial of expats:

The defense opened its case April 15 in the trial of five young Britons and an Australian arrested on drugs offenses in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), court sources said.
Dubai
In a procedural hearing during which the defendants were not questioned, lawyers submitted papers to the judge, who adjourned the hearing for a private meeting with the defense to be followed by a session with the prosecutor.

A date was to be set later for the next hearing.

The judge has kept journalists out of the Islamic court in the emirate of Ras Al Khaimah since the prosecution submitted closing arguments on April 3, whereas the press had previously been allowed to attend.

The defendants, including four women, have however been granted consular access, and the court has allowed diplomats to attend the hearings.

The suspects, in their 20s and 30s, who were arrested in Ras Al Khaimah and Dubai between late October and early November, have pleaded not guilty on most charges, which cover smuggling, possession, trafficking and use of drugs.

Prosecutors last month appealed a life term handed down to Lebanese national Gilbert Pilal for drug smuggling, calling on the Ras Al Khaimah court to impose the death penalty.

Pilal was caught in a police sting and six more suspects have been arrested: Britons Anne Kidd, Anna Bartlett, Katherine Jenkins, Stacy Simpson and Daniel Maalouf, and Australian Heidi Dabour.

The trafficking charge carries the death sentence in the UAE, of which Ras Al Khaimah and Dubai are both members.

Several foreigners have been sentenced to death under a 1995 law that lays down capital punishment for drug trafficking. But no executions � normally by firing squad in the UAE - have been announced for narcotics crimes.

Death sentences are often commuted to life in prison, which in the Emirates is a 15-year term.

Dubai drugs sting Briton jailed:

A Briton caught making a cocaine deal in a Dubai hotel room has been jailed for 25 years. 
Steven James, 40, sold 150 grams of cocaine to a United Arab Emirates national for about �15,000.

The buyer, an unemployed 38-year-old, had been given the money for the deal by the police.

James's lawyers will be appealing against the ruling made by Dubai's Criminal Court of First Instance, the Foreign Office said.

He is the fourth Briton to be convicted of drugs offences in the UAE so far this year

Anna Hamilton, also known as Anna Bartlett, 22, of Southend-on-Sea, Essex, was convicted in May of "using, trafficking and importing drugs" into the UAE.

She was sentenced to life and ordered to pay the equivalent of �10,000 by a court in the northern emirate of Ras al-Khaimah.

In June, a 34-year-old British man was sentenced to life in prison for dealing drugs by a UAE court.

Like James, the man, known only by the initials ANA, was allegedly caught in a police sting.

He confessed to having tried to sell 1.13gs of cocaine to an undercover police officer, the Khaleej Times reported.

Another Briton, Daniel Maalouf, 28, of London, was jailed for 10 years for intent to traffic in drugs.

Death sentence

James was born in Yeovil, Somerset, but it was not clear where he had been living in recent years.

He booked a hotel room for the drugs deal which he conducted with a 28-year-old Frenchman.

After the exchange waiting police found money in James's pockets.

He told them the drugs had been brought into the country from the UK by someone else.

The Frenchman was sentenced to four years in jail for possession and use of drugs.

Although no drug-related executions have been carried out in the UAE, under national law foreign drug traffickers can be sentenced to death

Drug trafficking: 4 Pakistanis in UAE sentenced to death

DUBAI, April 19: Four Pakistani men were sentenced to death for drug dealing by a United Arab Emirates (UAE) court, local newspapers reported on Wednesday.

The Dubai court also found two businessmen and two drivers guilty of using drugs and sentenced them to four years in jail to be implemented if the death sentences are overturned during the appeal process, the Khaleej Times reported.

The paper said another defendant in the case was sentenced to 10 years to be followed by deportation while a sixth suspect was acquitted. It said the group was captured in an undercover police operation when a police officer posing as a Kuwaiti paid 750,000 dirhams ($204,000) to the group for the drugs. The police stormed a villa in Dubai, where the transaction was taking place, arresting the suspects and seizing a total of 65.2 kilogrammes (143.7 lbs) of hashish.

In a separate incident, Dubai police arrested a Pakistani at the airport as he attempted to smuggle nearly six kilogrammes of heroin to Europe, Khaleej Times reported.-Reuters

Australian woman escapes Emirates death penalty:

April 2 2002

An Australian woman has escaped the death penalty but will spend five years in a Middle East jail after being found guilty on drugs charges.

Queenslander Heidi DeBoer, 25, will be deported after serving her sentence but under tough United Arab Emirates anti-drug laws could have faced death by firing squad.

The long-term resident of Dubai was found guilty yesterday after 17 months in custody, following a retrial.

Two of her co-accused, Britons Daniel Maalouf and Stacey Simpson, were sentenced to four years' jail while two British women, Katherine Jenkins and Anna Hamilton Bartlett, were found not guilty.

The group had been in jail since their arrests in Dubai in October and November 2000 after a Lebanese drug smuggler was caught in a sting in the northern emirate of Ras Al-Khaimah and implicated them.

The group was accused of smuggling about 500 grams of cocaine and small quantities of hashish into the UAE using the "swallow and regurgitate" method, according to police.

The Dubai court heard DeBoer, whose father is a pilot for the Dubai royal family, offered to sell cocaine to undercover police in a hotel bar.

DeBoer, Simpson and Jenkins were acquitted by a court in Ras Al Khaimah last June after the court ruled they had no case to answer.

But prosecutors successfully applied for the case to be reheard in Dubai.

Conditions in UAE prisons are mixed, with a woman released from jail in Abu Dhabi two years ago saying cells were overcrowded and cockroach infested. On her floor, 145 women shared 47 beds and there were only five working toilets.

The campaign group Prisoners Abroad said women could expect better facilities in Dubai, including air-conditioned cells, but could also expect to be threatened with violence.

Illegal drug trafficking is a global industry worth US$ 400 billion. The United Arab Emirates, by virtue of its position as a cultural and geographical gateway between the East and West, is not excluded from this extensive black market.

Two major drug busts in Umm Al Quwain and Dubai in the past six months have uncovered warehouse-size factories which were dedicated to the manufacture of illegal narcotics.

The raids served to reflect the two extreme poles in the UAE�s effort to stem the flow of drugs through and into the country. On the one hand, the success of the elaborate undercover police operations served to highlight the capability and determination of investigators to unearth and apprehend highly organised criminals.

Conversely, it illustrated that the UAE was being targeted by equally determined organised crime syndicates with access to the kind of capital and personnel necessary to produce and move large scale quantities of prohibited substances.

The UAE�s accessibility by sea, air and land is a serendipitous blessing for the country�s economy. But the downside of this otherwise fortunate geography is the ease with which drug barons can shift their illegal wares.

Police acknowledge that drugs pass through the Middle East, including the Emirates, from sources in South East Asia, Pakistan and Afghanistan on their way to meeting the high demand of users in Europe and North America.

The actual market for hard and soft drugs in the UAE is very low by international standards. The drug consignments which reach the UAE are invariably part of a re-export operation co-ordinated by middle men willing to risk severe penalties under UAE federal law.

Recognised regionally as the leading combatant of organised crime, the UAE works closely with the United Nations, Interpol and other federal agencies to thwart the international drug traffickers as well as individual smugglers.

According to Dubai Police Director of Research and Studies, Dr Mohammed Murad Abdulla, the drug dealers will continually try to counter the government�s state-of-the-art surveillance techniques and ever-increasing manpower directed at drug detection.

�The Dubai International Airport has one of the most excellent systems in the world in place to weed out the drug smugglers and this advanced equipment is always being updated,� said Dr Abdullah.

The most voluminous avenue of drug trafficking in the UAE is believed, however, to be through the ports where large quantities of foreign goods are imported every day.

�The airport is where we catch mainly small time dealers and people carrying drugs for personal use. People know it is not easy to move large quantities of drugs through the airports without eluding detection,� explained Dr Abdullah.

�The ports are policed by inspectors and we have specially-trained sniffer dogs to help uncover goods smuggled through the ports. It is not easy to check all cargo but we are always training our officers and improving our resources to ensure the UAE is one of the toughest places for drug dealers to ply their trade,� he said.

Highlighting the effectiveness of the police crackdown on drug dealing is the fact that heroin and hashish with a street value of over Dhs 10 million was seized in the past eight months.

These hauls combined amounted to a total of 810 kilograms of various drugs and resulted in the arrest of 27 drug dealers.

Recent drug busts throughout the Emirates have been spectacular in their scale and have underlined the importance the President His Highness Sheikh Zayed has placed on thwarting what has been described as a �threat to national security�.

In January, Sharjah Police seized 600 kg of hashish which had been smuggled into the country in mandarin crates for re-export to a neighbouring country.

In this case, the two Pakistani culprits were arrested following a tip-off from anti-narcotics officers with the Sharjah Coast Guard. The two had stored the drugs in a warehouse in the industrial area while searching for a third party to help them with arrangements in the neighbouring country of sale.

Echoing the sentiments of Dr Abdullah in Dubai, Director of Anti-Narcotics Section of the Sharjah Police, Maj. Ali Al Fardan, agreed the UAE was a transit point for many drug trafficking activities. �It is impossible for any anti-narcotic agency to check all goods and consignments coming into a country but the volume of drug trafficking through the UAE is minimal compared to other countries,� he said.

�The local anti-narcotic bodies rely on informants, tip-offs and suspicious behaviour in investigating and following-up drug cases, and the drug enforcement teams are put on full alert at all times,� Al Fardan pointed out.

It was such a tip-off from an astute member of the public in the northern Emirates which alerted Dubai authorities to a warehouse containing 700 kg of hashish. The ill-fated cargo had been transported by ship using the same container in two separate journeys. A covert police operation intercepted the three drug-dealing Pakistanis on the second leg of their illegal jaunt.

No particular nationality has a monopoly on the importation of prohibited substances into the UAE. Pakistanis, Omanis, Canadians and UAE nationals have all been sentenced to death in recent times for their part in drug dealing scams.

However, the spate of large-scale busts involving Pakistanis recently elevated the problem beyond the streets and ports and into the diplomatic arena. Dubai Police Chief, Maj Gen Dhahi Khalfan was prompted to suggest immigration and visa rules could be tightened if Pakistan failed to clamp down on drug smuggling.

�Imported Pakistani goods will be directed to a special port where every speck will be looked into before the goods enter Dubai. A new national work plan will give us more control on all the ports, especially the smaller ones where all the huge drug cases come from,� Dhahi said.

�We do not want to have a political crisis with another country or blame good Pakistan nationals for what some criminals do,� he said. �But their country should co-operate to put an end to using Dubai as a transit point for drugs.�

The singling out of Pakistan as a major source of the UAE�s problems in the fight against drugs prompted an immediate rebuttal from the Pakistan Government.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif�s Press secretary Siddique Ul Farooque said drug trafficking was an �international phenomena, irrespective of colour, creed, language or nationality� and added that his country supported the death penalty for smugglers.

He said Pakistan was being singled out as a conduit by the drug mafia but pointed out that the country had acted to significantly reduce the poppy production used to make heroin and opium.

The International Narcotics Control Board reported that the 1980s level of 800 tonnes of poppy production in Pakistan had been cut to 45 tonnes in recent years.

While the market for drugs within the UAE is relatively low, it is inexplicably linked with the poppy fields which dot the Asian Subcontinent and Far East.

�Among locals, heroin is the most dangerous because of its addictive nature and the fact it is easier to smuggle than other drugs. It is also lucrative for criminals because it can fetch a street price of 500 dirhams per gram. But other drugs are also the subject of public awareness campaigns and are treated equally harshly in the courts,� said Dr Abdulla.

A combination of social, economic and legal factors contribute to the moderate penetration of hard and soft drugs into the local population. No-one knows the precise extent of the local drug problem because of the �dark number of unknown users� although the number of arrests, street prices and anecdotal evidence suggests it is lower than most countries. �The economic circumstances in Dubai mean there is not the underclass of people who are usually susceptible to the sales pitch of the drug pusher,� said Dr Abdullah.

Although there is a vast salary gulf between skilled and unskilled workers in the UAE, the overwhelming majority of expatriates are here because of their increased earning potential.

As incongruous as it may seem, the increased disposable income does not translate into extra expenditure on drugs. Without a disenchanted underclass looking for an escape from the cycle of poverty, the sales pitch of the drug pusher lacks much of its allure.

For those who do fall into the clutches of drug addiction, the system does offer a merciful service to those willing to try and kick the habit.

A unique immunity from prosecution is extended to any drug user willing to turn themselves in to police and seek rehabilitation. There are several clinics throughout Dubai were the addicts can be offered the latest in medical treatment as they strive towards recovery.

The UAE courts do not discriminate between heroin or hashish. Both carry minimum sentences of four years for possession and usage. Drug dealing is punishable by death.

In justification of the guaranteed death sentence Chief Justice of the Dubai Criminal Court, Counsellor Anwar Al Jaberi, was reported as saying, �The philosophy of the legislator is to fight the crime of committing suicide by drugs and the drug dealers are the source of this danger.�

Among the Western expatriate community, those who might be tempted to indulge in drug consumption in their home country are deterred by the prospect of long jail terms handed down to anyone in possession of, or proven to have used, drugs. Ignorance has proven to be the biggest threat to many expatriates who come from countries with a liberal, often tolerant, attitude towards soft drugs such as hashish and cannabis.

Unbeknownst to most, the use of drugs while overseas can result in a jail term in the Emirates.

Few realise that Federal Law No. 14 allows for the four year sentences to be applied to anyone whose urine sample tests positive to drug use. Dubai and Sharjah prisons are presently home to several Australian, American, British and Canadian recreational drug users who used drugs on overseas holidays. They subsequently tested positive to drugs after motor vehicle accidents or other police investigations.

One Western Consul-General said the law was strict but it was the responsibility of all residents to be alert to the rules as ignorance did not provide a legal defence.

Dr Abdullah supported the principle which treated all drugs and drug abusers under the same sentencing umbrella.

�There is no difference because once you use drugs you need three years rehabilitation to be cured. Soft drugs lead to the inevitable use of hard drugs so it is best to treat them with the same severity,� he said. It is this �inevitable progression� which is at the centre of much of the Dubai Police�s effective educational programme.

Posters adorning the walls of the Department of Preventive Medicine made by young children bear testimony to the fact the message is getting through.

In the past, officials could attribute the local drug problem to a lack of awareness among youngsters who were easy prey to peer group pressure and predatory drug pushers. Today specially trained officers regularly visit boys� and girls� schools preaching the importance of �Just Saying No�.

The logo was borrowed from a proven campaign used in Los Angeles in the United States after Dubai Police research revealed 80 per cent of first time users used again.

The media is also enlisted by the police in the fight against drug addiction. More often pilloried for glorifying violence and decadence, the media has instead become an agent abetting the spread of the government�s anti-drug message.

A spokesperson from the Ministry of Information�s Mass Media Censorship Office said drug use was treated in the same way as sex by censors.

�We edit out scenes which depict illegal drug use and if it is the underlying theme of a film it will not be released in the country,� the spokesperson said.

�It is against Islamic principles to glorify these things. It is often a fine line between actually making people aware of the dangers or just alerting them to a practice they would not have previously considered.� The constant screening of images generated by the multi-million dollar film and publishing industries is just one part of the UAE�s concerted effort to protect the country and its citizens. With the added endeavour put into detecting and apprehending, educating and rehabilitating, the UAE government is leading the fight in ensuring the Emirates contribute little to the US$ 400 billion global black market.

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