Customs officer, brother face trial for bid to smuggle banned tobacco

A customs officer and his brother, aged 51 and 48, forged official documents in an attempt to facilitate the entry of banned tobacco products worth BD25,000 into Bahrain, according to court files.

The pair appeared before the High Criminal Court yesterday for their trial, where the second defendant feigned to be insane, according to court sources. The hearing was adjourned until October 7, 2018, to hear prosecution witnesses and to have the second defendant undergo a psychological evaluation to determine if he is mentally competent or not.

The pair has been arrested after the General Directorate of Anti-Corruption and Economic and Electronic Security received a tip-off on the customs officer’s attempt to allow a shipment to enter into Bahrain under the pretext that it was a clothes consignment coming from a GCC state to Bahrain. However, it turned out to be eight boxes of a banned tobacco product.

The consignment was exposed after the driver who was delivering it reported to his superiors that there was an odd smell coming out of the boxes, although he was told that they were containing clothes.

Therefore, the customs officer was summoned by his superiors because he was the one who checked it and authorized to enter the Kingdom. “I found among the shipment was a box and it contained clothes. Therefore, I approved it,” the 51-year-old man said. Further investigations discovered that the shipment belonged to his brother who owned an import company from 2004 until 2011 and it was later declared bankrupt.