The Sharjah Sharia Court sentenced 45-year-old Iranian boat owner Jamshid T. to death for smuggling and selling 282 kilograms of hashish shipped to the Emirates on a commercial boat from Iran.[1][2] The court acquitted the other eight defendants, seven Iranian sailors and a Saudi businessman, for lack of evidence.[1][2] Jamshid T. was additionally charged with consuming drugs and using a fake passport, and his lawyer argued that no drugs were found in his possession and his blood tested negative.[1][2]

Dubai police’s Anti-Narcotics Department had received a tip that three of the suspects planned to smuggle a large hashish consignment from Iran and export it onward to Saudi Arabia.[2] The main culprit helped load the drugs from another Iranian vessel onto his own boat at sea outside the UAE coastline; the boat then berthed in Umm Al Quwain, the hashish was moved to a car, and police arrested the suspects after finding the consignment in the car following a raid on the ship.[2] A later US government summary of the case put the haul at 267 kg and dated the death sentence to March 2007.[3]