A young drugs dealer has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for possessing 5.5kg of unregulated CBD oil across 181 different containers hidden around his car and home.
The 21-year-old Bahraini was found guilty by the High Criminal Court of selling synthetic cannabinoids and of possessing pregabalin (Lyrica) for personal use.
The man was arrested after attempting to sell drugs worth BD400 to an undercover informant, after a ‘secret source’ tipped off the police about his illegal activities.
He repeatedly claimed that his confession of guilt was forced by an investigator and earlier filed a misconduct report with the Special Investigations Unit (SIU) against the police officer involved in his arrest.
In a defence memo, the suspect’s lawyer claimed that the detective had completely fabricated the accusations against his client, then ‘extracted a confession’ from him ‘by force’.
In response, the Bahraini officer told the court that he had acquired a warrant to apprehend and search the defendant and the defendant was caught red-handed in a sting operation when he was about to sell CBD oil to an informant.
In the defendant’s car, four bottles of CBD oil weighing 198g were found. In his house were found 142 plastic bottles containing 4.75kg of the substance, 34 bottles containing 515g, and one containing 65g.
The 21-year-old defendant from Salmabad admitted to using narcotics and traces of synthetic cannabinoids and Lyrica were reportedly found in his urine. In his confession, the Bahraini stated that he had been peddling CBD oil at an infamous nightspot in Hoora.
He went on to claim that he had been assaulted by a Bahraini policeman, who the attorney accused of being ‘a rookie who was trying to prove himself’, declaring that the warrant was built on ‘a sham query’. The defendant’s attorney claimed that the story was ‘pure imagination’ and an ‘invention’ by the detective but the court dismissed calls to discard the confession.
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