A popular British influencer will long remember her time in a prison in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, where she was arrested for drug-related crimes.
Kaz Crossley, finalist of the reality show Love Islandin 2018, in the United Kingdom, was not on his first visit to the ultra-conservative country in the Middle East.
In 2020, in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, several influencers had temporarily found refuge in the United Arab Emirates, where health restrictions were less severe than in Europe. For her part, she claimed to be in Dubai for “work”.
Two years later, the influencer was on her way to Thailand, for a mission in a humanitarian organization in Phuket.
During her stopover in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the Emirates, the Emirati customs officers were eagerly waiting to question her about a video that recently resurfaced on social media.
The clip of a few seconds shows her consuming “an unknown white substance”, which looks like cocaine, drug strictly prohibited for consumption.
Any drug consumption is severely repressed in the country; violators of the law risk at least three years in prison, in addition to fines of up to $30,000, on their first offense.
His detention< /p>
Immediately arrested because of the compromising video, the influencer was transferred to a prison in Dubai, where she claims to have lived through hell.
She was reportedly refused any phone calls with her loved ones, which greatly disturbed her.
Four days later, the influencer reassured her subscribers – she has almost a million – on Instagram.
“I am safe, thank you for all your messages. I want to take some time to think about what just happened to me […]”, she wrote on leaving the penitentiary, in an ephemeral image on the social network.
< p>According to sources close to the woman, Crossley was imprisoned in a large cell with 30 women, without air conditioning, where the temperature would have reached 30°C.