Jailed for smuggling narcotics in metal tandoor oven

TDT | Manama

Email: mail@newsofbahrain.com

Two Asian expats have been jailed for five years after smuggling over a kilo of narcotics into Bahrain inside a tightly sealed metal tandoor oven sent by post to an unsuspecting local courier, who only escaped prison himself when detectives overheard him confronting the real smuggler.

The High Criminal Court handed the men BD3,000 fines each and ordered they be permanently deported once released. Customs at Bahrain International Airport first raised the alarm after spotting an odd-shaped package sent by post from an Asian country.

X-ray

An X-ray showed a cooking oven, but something about the parcel seemed rather off, and customs officers decided to hold it back.

Days later, a clerk from a local clearance agency arrived to collect the parcel.

He casually explained to security that he was collecting it for a mate and had been promised BD50 for the errand.

Shabu

But when customs opened the package, they found a sealed metal tandoor oven packed with 1.1 kilograms of crystal-like powder believed to be the drug shabu.

Taken into custody and questioned by officers from the Anti-Narcotics Directorate, the clerk insisted he knew nothing about any drugs. He explained a friend overseas, a baker by trade, had sent the package using his name without letting on what was really hidden inside.

Sensing an opportunity, detectives got him to phone the man abroad, who calmly explained that someone else in Bahrain would be collecting the parcel. A trap was quickly arranged