Members of drug smuggling network sentenced

The First High Criminal Court yesterday sentenced six members of a drug trafficking and distribution network to imprisonment with jail terms varying between one and 15 years. The network included three Gulf nationals, including a woman, two Bahrainis and a female Arab resident. Three of them were sentenced to 15 years imprisonment and fined BD5,000 each for the charges of trafficking, while the remaining three, including the woman, were sentenced to one-year imprisonment apart from a fine of BD1,000 each for possessing and consuming drugs. The woman will be deported after completing her sentence.

The group was convicted for its involvement in smuggling large quantities of hashish and narcotic pills into Bahrain through King Fahad Causeway and distributing it here, according to prosecutors. As mentioned in court files, the investigations of the Anti-Narcotics Department within the Interior Ministry led to a Bahraini man who was selling large quantities of hashish in Bahrain, and on January 13 this year, reliable information was received by the department about the delivery of a new shipment of hashish to the man.

A warrant from the Public Prosecution was issued and the suspect’s house in Daih village was raided and searched by the anti-narcotics team. The man was arrested and large quantities of hashish were confiscated from his house, prosecutors said. During the interrogation, the man confessed that he had hidden more quantities of hashish at his girlfriend’s (one of the defendants) house. The woman’s house was subsequently raided and she was arrested after hashish was found in her apartment. Her urine and blood tests showed traces of drugs, which revealed she was consuming drugs.