A WOMAN who tried to smuggle marijuana in bags of dried shrimp has been sentenced to 10 years in jail and fined BD5,000.
The High Criminal Court yesterday found the 40-year-old Cameroonian guilty of importing and possessing narcotics from Ethiopia with an intention to sell in Bahrain.
She had brought in 14.5kg of marijuana inside her luggage as she arrived at Bahrain International Airport in January this year.
She appeared to be extremely anxious and her odd behaviour prompted customs officers to search her baggage. They found the contraband ‘artfully’ concealed inside bags of dried shrimp and detained her for further investigations.
The Cameroonian initially told officers that the parcels contained fruit, but went on to admit the charges in court.
“We put the defendant’s two travel bags through the X-ray machine, which showed suspicious materials within,” a Bahraini customs officer told the Public Prosecution.
The defendant was handed over to the Anti-Narcotics Directorate.
The policeman who was given the case told prosecutors that secret sources informed him that the defendant intended to sell the marijuana.
The GDN previously reported the defendant’s statement at a past hearing where she cited her family’s financial struggles and lack of employment after the Covid-19 pandemic as the reason behind the smuggling bid. She told judges that she used to work as a domestic worker on an hourly basis, but after losing her job could no longer support her family, who were evicted from their home in Cameroon following her father’s death.
Out of desperation, she said she decided to join the vice trade, but pivoted to narcotics after she met a Cameroonian-Sierra Leonean woman who advised her that selling drugs was more profitable than sex work.
She returned to Cameroon late last year and bought five bags of marijuana from a drug dealer to smuggle into Bahrain and agreed to split the profits with the person who provided them.
The defendant will be deported after completing her sentence.
zainab@gdnmedia.bh
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