Pinay pleads innocent in Dubai drug case

MANILA, Philippines - A Filipino woman accused of selling a banned drug to a police informant in the United Arab Emirates pleaded innocent during arraignment, a news report in the Gulf News daily said on Tuesday.

"I am innocent ... I didn't possess or try to sell any drug," the woman was quoted telling the Court of First Instance in Dubai on Monday.

The report identified the Filipino only as L.A., and described her as a 28-year-old “visitor." Many Filipinos are known to visit the UAE using tourist visas as a way to seek jobs in the oil-rich Mideastern sheikhdom.

L.A. was arrested during a sting operation organized by the police after she tried to sell 0.08g of a methamphetamine hydrochloride, known among Filipinos as “shabu," said the report, which did not state when the arrest was made.

L.A. was charged along with another unidentified Filipino, who is at large, with possessing shabu, the report said.

Prosecutors charged the duo based on a testimony of an anti-narcotics captain who said the Dubai police organized a sting operation following a tip that the suspect was looking for someone to buy mini-pills from her in Al Riga Street.

A female informant posed as a buyer and agreed to buy the drug for 500 dirhams (US$126 or 6,200 pesos), leading to L.A.’s arrest, said the report.

It said the suspect admitted to investigators that she was working for a compatriot and claimed that her role was limited to delivering the pills to clients. She reportedly claimed not to know the name and whereabouts of her partner.

L.A. will be assigned a lawyer when the court will reconvenes soon, the report added. - GMANews.TV

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