WhatsApp users in Bahrain urge authorities to probe online drug service

TDT | Manama           

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

Staff Reporter

WhatsApp users in Bahrain are urging authorities to conduct a probe into supposed drug mafias sending messages in the social media platform offering delivery of drugs.  Last week, many WhatsApp users received messages asking whether they want drugs or narcotic substances. “Brother, I have a stuff available hashish and crystal in all Bahrain, do you need anything?” a message sent to a Bahrain resident said. It is learnt that the messages were sent at random from unidentified numbers.

Speaking to The Daily Tribune, a Bahrain resident whose wife received “drug delivery service message” said: “I request the authorities to initiate a probe into the matter. Traffickers continue to send messages from unknown numbers to people offering them different types of drugs and it is a big threat to society.”

The Daily Tribune earlier reported that WhatsApp – the most popular social media tool in Bahrain – has emerged as the number one social media platform to commit cybercrime in the country. One of the biggest challenges the authorities in the GCC face is to prevent the promotion of drugs over the Internet, especially on social networking sites. Recently, Sharjah Police asked the public to block and report any phone number that promotes the selling of any kind of controlled medicine or drugs. According to cybersecurity experts, blocking the number is the first step in tackling this crime.

“Never receive calls or messages from unknown numbers, especially if they are from abroad,” a leading cybersecurity expert told The Daily Tribune, while stressing the ways to keep online scammers and drug traffickers at bay. Bahrain maintains a zero tolerance policy towards drug peddlers and people who deal with drugs and narcotic substances.

The spread of drugs is one of the most dangerous phenomena of which humanity is utterly apprehensive given their destructive effects on societies and individuals, Interior Minister Shaikh Rashid bin Abdulla Al Khalifa had observed earlier. The Interior Ministry, through its Customs and Anti-Drug Directorates, has been exerting serious efforts to confront the issue to shield the society from this dangerous phenomenon. Drugs and narcotic substances worth millions are seized every year at the Bahrain International Airport by the Customs Department and many convicts, tens of them, are facing jail sentences of various magnitudes in the Kingdom.

In April, a total of 950kg of hashish was seized by teams, which operate as part of Combined Task Force (CTF) 150 – one of three task forces under the Kingdom-based 34-nation Combined Maritime Forces (CMF). As per the reports, the CTF 150 seized more than $189m worth of illegal drugs during counter-narcotics operations at sea last year.