A man who went to collect more than 400 ecstasy tablets hidden in a toy washing machine has lost his appeal against a five-year prison sentence at the Supreme Criminal Appeals Court.
In January, the unemployed expatriate was found guilty of importing narcotics via air mail, and the High Criminal Court fined him BD3,000 and ordered his deportation after serving his time behind bars.
The smuggling was so ‘expertly-carried out’ that the package managed to get through Customs’ careful screening process, the court earlier heard. The authorities managed to track down the 24-year-old when the package was delivered to the wrong house.
The Pakistani appellant’s plans were foiled when the box was delivered to the wrong address and the curious recipient reported the suspicious shipment to police.
A 44-year-old Bahraini blue-collar worker told prosecutors that his wife was expecting a package containing makeup, which she had ordered online, but instead found children’s toys in it.
“I noticed that one of the screws in the toy washing was missing, so I unscrewed the remainder and found things stuffed inside that looked like drugs. I called the police,” he earlier testified.
The package was handed to detectives in the Interior Ministry’s Anti-Narcotics Directorate, who uncovered a ‘clay-like’ substance and inside it where small plastic bags containing small pills.
Altogether, there were 439 pills that were later found to be MDMA (an abbreviation of 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine), also called ‘Molly’ or ‘Ecstasy’, a lab-made (synthetic) drug that has effects similar to stimulants like methamphetamine. It is typically sold illicitly as colourful tablets with imprinted logos.
Since the appellant’s name was on the package label, detectives launched an investigation and sources revealed that he was known for importing drugs to promote and sell in Bahrain.
In the initial trial, the Pakistani’s defence attorney made accusations against witnesses and claimed that his client has been ‘framed’.
“The witnesses and the shipping company were complicit in making my client appear to be the person behind the package,” the defence argued. “They were the ones that put the pills inside the toys and then summoned the appellant to collect the box. Before even having the chance to open the package and peer at its contents, my client was arrested. All he did was sign for the package.”
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