A Thai woman was sentenced to 15 years in prison for attempting to smuggle 2.58kg of marijuana in her suitcase.
The court rejected her appeal against the verdict yesterday.
In April, the High Criminal Court had also fined her BD10,000 and ordered her deportation after she completes her sentence – a decision that was upheld by the Supreme Criminal Appeals Court.
The traveller had been promised just BD170 (15,000 Thai baht) to transport the illicit shipment from Thailand to Bahrain via the UAE.
Upon arriving in the country, her luggage was marked as suspicious, and she was directed to the ‘Red Lane’ for passengers with items to declare.
A police officer testified that she ‘appeared extremely nervous’ when asked if she had anything in her bag that needed to be declared. Although she denied it, a search of her bag proved otherwise.
Six packages of marijuana were reportedly stashed between clothes and personal items in the bag, contradicting her statement. The case was handed over to the Anti-Narcotics Directorate, which investigated the matter and concluded that the Thai woman was acting as a drug courier for profit.
Detectives told the court that the woman was transporting the narcotics on behalf of a network of dealers, and was to hand it over to an individual upon arrival in Bahrain. However, the individual was not identified.
The appellant confessed that she was asked to transport the suitcase by a woman named ‘Lin’, who paid for her flight ticket and hotel stay, and was to pay her BD170. She received a hefty jail sentence, which was upheld on appeal.
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