Three men are accused of attempting to smuggle 200,000 Captagon pills into Saudi Arabia from Bahrain by concealing them in a spare tyre.
The accused, two Bahrainis and a Saudi, are on trial at the High Criminal Court on charges of possessing and exporting an amphetamine with intent to sell and make a profit.
According to the chief investigator in the case, the defendants were arrested after the Anti-Narcotics Directorate were informed by its equivalent in Saudi Arabia of the alleged smuggling operation.
One of the defendants, a 30-year-old Bahraini, was reportedly arrested while he was trying to transport 200,000 pills across the Saudi land border.
Although he successfully passed customs on the Bahraini side of the King Fahad Causeway, he was allegedly caught in the act on the Saudi side, the court heard.
The detective told the court that his investigations revealed that a 31-year-old Bahraini, who had connections with a man in Saudi Arabia, arranged the smuggling trip and had asked his ‘operatives’ in Bahrain to do his bidding.
Officers requested a warrant from the Public Prosecution to arrest the older defendant and search his residence. The court heard that the suspect admitted his connections to the mysterious Saudi defendant, and admitted that he was going to receive BD1,000 for smuggling the amphetamines across the border.
He stated that he received narcotics on behalf of the Saudi, stored them and then prepared transportation into the neighbouring country, via the other co-defendant, who handed the drugs over on arrival.
After hiding a large number of pills inside a spare tyre, he admitted to placing the drugs in the 30-year-old’s car, the court was told.
An officer claimed that the three men were part of an organised network of drug dealers, who imported narcotics into Saudi Arabia through Bahrain through highly-technical and creative means, that made the smuggling attempts difficult to detect.
Part of the investigation in the case was carried out by the Saudi Arabian Public Prosecution, who provided prosecutors with information, including the driver’s confession that the car belonged to him.
Court files stated that the information-sharing between the two bodies was enabled and facilitated through the 1983 Riyadh Arab Agreement for Judicial Co-operation.
The agreement stipulates that Arab nations, who signed the accords, ‘shall regularly exchange the texts of legislations” and “shall take measures to reconcile legislative texts and coordinate legal systems’.
Saudi authorities also confirmed through lab analyses that the pills contained amphetamines. Captagon is a mix of amphetamines, also known as the ‘poor man’s cocaine’, that drug dealers often target at affluent young people in the Gulf region.
The accused men deny the charges. Judges adjourned the trial until tomorrow for defence responses.
zainab@gdnmedia.bh
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