Bahraini man gets death penalty for smuggling drugs

TDT | Manama                                                  

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

The High Criminal Court has handed down the death penalty to a Bahraini man involved in bringing 50 kilograms of hashish from Iran with the intention to sell in Bahrain. There was a domino effect in this case in which five defendants are implicated, but it began with the arrest of a woman, in her fifties, in connection with attempting to smuggle drugs into Bahrain.

Standing with her are four other defendants, including two women and two men. The woman has been arrested in a sting operation after the anti-drugs department at the Ministry of Interior assigned an undercover agent who posed as a delivery man to hand the shipment to her after it was discovered that it included drugs.

The shipment arrived in Bahrain from a country located in South America. The drugs were stuffed in the plates in order to have them avoid detection. A customs official discovered them after passing through the X-ray machine. It was found that they were cocaine.

As a result, the woman was detained. The second defendant, a man, was captured after investigations discovered that he was involved in helping the woman in distributing the drugs. He was arrested in a sting operation involving the first woman who called him, and requested him to hand her an amount of BD400 for selling drugs to him earlier.

They agreed to meet in her house, and he was arrested upon his arrival. He told prosecutors he was receiving the drugs from the third defendant, a woman, and he offered to help police to arrest her red-handed. He called her and expressed his wish to buy half kilogram of hashish for BD1,300. They agreed to meet in her house.

She told him that her friend, the fourth defendant, would come and bring the drugs with him. Both of them were busted, and the fourth defendant told police that he was getting the drugs from the fifth defendant. The latter raised a lot of suspicions after he was arrested in a sting operation with the help of the fourth defendant, as he managed to meet the fourth defendant’s request of one kilogram of hashish at a value of BD3,000.

He admitted to receiving the drugs from an Iranian man, who was planning to bring to Bahrain 50 kilograms of hashish. He informed the police that the Iranian man would leave the drugs in the sea. Police headed to the same coordinates provided by the fifth defendant and seized the drugs.

As a result, he was handed down the capital penalty, while the second, third and fourth defendants were acquitted for their role in capturing the fifth defendant who was the mastermind of bringing the drugs into Bahrain. Meanwhile, the first defendant was sentenced to six months in prison and was fined BD100.