Saudi YouTuber on trial in Dubai for possessing and planting drugs in his apartment

Dubai: A famous Saudi YouTuber has been accused of possessing and planting three marijuana plants inside his apartment, the Dubai Court of First Instance heard on Sunday.

The 18-year-old social media influencer was caught inside his apartment in the Business Bay area of Dubai in February this year, along with other suspects who were later referred to the Court of Misdemeanour, while consuming Hashish.

According to official records, the Anti-Narcotics Department at Dubai Police was tipped-off about the Saudi defendant possessing drugs.

A 32-year-old Emirati policeman said the defendant, who has millions of  subscribers on his YouTube channel and huge number of followers on Instagram, was arrested with two male youngsters and a female minor.

“We searched the apartment and found tobacco mixed with hashish weighing 8.29 grammes. We found a plastic bag inside the freezer containing about 82 grammes of Hashsih,” said the policeman in official records.

“Officers found in the living room, a device for flowering three [marijuana] plants. He admitted that he had found the seeds and planted them.”

The three plants were 60cm tall and weighed 405 grammes, according to records.

The second defendant claimed that he had bought the marijuana seeds from a person during a party in Dubai and kept them in the apartment where the Saudi YouTuber later planted them.

The female youngster admitted that the defendant had supplied her with the drugs twice.

The defendants revealed during interrogation that another person had supplied them with the drugs who wasn’t with them during the raid. Police later arrested the supplier with a certain amount of Hashish in his car.

“He claimed that he had got the drugs from an unknown Pakistani man outside the UAE whom he came to know through WhatsApp. The Pakistani man had sent him the location from where to collect the drugs and he had wired him the money through an exchange house. He claimed that he had sold the drugs to the defendant for Dh3,000,” added the policeman.

Dubai Public Prosecution has charged the defendant with possessing and planting three Marijuana plants, supplying Hashish to a minor girl, possessing, along with others, 96.6 grammes of Hashish and consuming the drugs.

The next hearing is scheduled for September 13.