Raymond Bingham, the BBC Radio 1 drum’n’bass DJ known as Grooverider, was arrested at Dubai International Airport on 23 November 2007 after customs officers found 2.16 grams of cannabis in a plastic bag in a jeans pocket in his luggage, hours before he was due to play a city nightclub.[1][2][3] Held in a cell at the airport, he told the court the drug was his but that he had forgotten it was in his trousers.[1][4]
At his first court appearance in early February 2008, dressed in white prison overalls, he admitted possessing marijuana; a customs officer told the court he had found it in a plastic bag inside a jeans pocket.[4] Pornographic DVDs also found in his luggage were not pursued.[1] His lawyers argued he had no knowledge of the emirate’s strict drug laws.[1]
On 19 February 2008 a Dubai court found him guilty of possession and illegally bringing marijuana into the United Arab Emirates and imposed four years’ imprisonment followed by deportation, the mandatory minimum sentence for drug possession there.[1][2] He had two weeks to appeal.[2]
He served about ten months before the Dubai royal family pardoned him; by early September 2008 he had been released early and flown back to Britain.[3] He later described months in a detention centre awaiting trial and eight people to a cell.[5]