DUBAI // A man who bought nearly 300 bottles of beer and spirits to sell illegally during Ramadan was arrested on the second day of the month.
The Filipino domestic worker was detained by a police patrol two hours after iftar on June 30 as he was distributing the alcohol to customers in Al Diyafa.
The patrol stopped and searched the man’s car after noticing it had stopped at several homes in the area. They found 240 bottles of beer and 45 bottles of spirits in the car boot.
The man said he had bought the alcohol in Ajman before Ramadan to resell it at a profit. “I would have gained Dh700,” he said.
Police also found Dh1,050 on his person, which he confessed came from alcohol sales before he was arested.
The man pleaded guilty at Dubai Court of Misdemeanours to selling alcohol without a licence, and was jailed for two months. The court also ordered the confiscation of his car and the cash.
He will be deported after completing his jail term.
salamir@thenational.ae
The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
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