19 accused in drug case, BD491,000 laundered, and sentences handed down

TDT | Manama

Email: mail@newsofbahrain.com

Over BD491,000 laundered through crypto wallets and dead drops as 19 defendants stood trial at the High Criminal Court for drug trafficking and money laundering.

Sentences ranged from one to 15 years, with 11 of the accused fined BD100,000 each.

The court ordered the deportation of convicted expats following their jail terms and confiscated the full amount linked to the laundering scheme.

Free Three defendants walked free, among them the client of lawyer Dalal Al Thawwadi, who had filed a defence brief seeking his acquittal.

The first six defendants were sentenced to 10 years behind bars and fined BD5,000 each for drug dealing.

The first, second and those from the sixth through the fourteenth were also given five years and fined BD100,000 apiece for laundering the profits of the trade.

Proceeds

The court ordered BD491,000 seized as proceeds of crime.

The remaining five were jailed for a year and fined BD1,000 each. All convicted foreign defendants are to be deported once their sentences are served.

Defendants 20 to 22 were found not guilty. The case began with a tip-off to the General Directorate of Anti-Narcotics.

Operation

Investigators learned that the first defendant, still at large and believed to be abroad, was directing a drug-selling operation in Bahrain and laundering the takings with the help of his brother, the second defendant. The pair reportedly arranged for the profits to be funnelled through local bank accounts, accessed with the help of other suspects.

The sixth defendant and unnamed others allegedly agreed to hand over control of their accounts for a cut of the proceeds.

They were said to be fully aware that the accounts would be used to process funds tied to narcotics sales.

Bank accounts

To muddy the trail, the first defendant is believed to have bought up several bank accounts in Bahrain.

From there, money was scattered across various accounts, withdrawn, and transferred abroad using exchange outlets.

It was also moved to cryptocurrency platforms and converted into USDT, then funnelled through digital wallets out of Bahrain.

Once offshore, it was converted into Asian currency and redirected into accounts run from the suspect’s home country.