Drug-trafficking ring busted!

TDT | Manama

The Fourth High Criminal Court yesterday sentenced two Gulf nationals to life in prison and fined them BD10,000 each for trafficking drugs through King Fahad Causeway. The two men were part of a gang, which also consisted of Bahraini defendants, that was responsible for trafficking, selling, and distributing hashish and marijuana in the Kingdom.

The court also sentenced both defendants to deportation, while the remaining gang members were punished each with three years of imprisonment and fined BD1,000 for drugs abuse and possession. The case was initially brought up when investigations by a lieutenant in the Interior Ministry’s Anti-Narcotics Department led to the first defendant—a Bahraini man, who was caught red-handed last year selling BD300 worth of hashish to a secret police informant.

The first defendant cooperated with police and led them to one of his Bahraini accomplices after arranging a deal to buy a piece of hashish worth BD3,900. An ambush was set up by the police to arrest the second defendant, who attempted to escape, but was eventually caught. The piece of hashish was found in his possession when his car was searched.

According to court files, the second defendant, also a Bahraini man, was taken to the directorate’s building in Adliya for interrogation, and while he was there, he received a call on the Snapchat mobile application from the third defendant, who was one of the two Gulf nationals sentenced to life.

While on loudspeaker, the third defendant was heard by the lieutenant saying that he received an order from the fourth defendant, the second Gulf national, to deliver a kilogramme of hashish to the second defendant, who was already in police custody. A meeting was arranged and police surprised the third defendant, who was waiting in his car for the second defendant to come and collect the quantity from him.

When asked, he denied any knowledge of the drug deal. However, after inspecting his vehicle, it was revealed that the drugs were professionally stashed in the automobile’s air filters. The man confessed in the interrogation that he trafficked the piece through King Fahad Causeway, as per the instructions of the fourth defendant, in order to deliver to a dealer here, who was the second defendant.

Further investigations showed that the fourth defendant regularly provides the drugs and hands them over to the third defendant, who takes the responsibility of trafficking them into Bahrain and delivering them to the second defendant.