.jpg?20260715')
A man has been sentenced to 15 years in prison and fined BD10,000 for smuggling marijuana concealed inside women’s handbags placed in a travel bag.
The High Criminal Court yesterday convicted the 30-year-old unemployed Bahraini of trading in narcotics and confiscated the illicit substances.
He was further found guilty of possessing marijuana and meth for personal use.
The man arrived in Bahrain from Thailand and Customs Affairs officers marked his luggage as ‘suspicious’.
He was sent to secondary screening and when asked if he had anything to declare, he said ‘no’.
Airport police searched his suitcase and discovered two women’s handbags containing six plastic packages of marijuana, weighing a total of 185.8gm. Tools used to handle the narcotics and packaging materials were also found in his luggage.
“The defendant operated on his own, importing narcotics to promote, sell and use,” a detective stated.
“He sold marijuana to several people he knew.”
During a search of his mobile phone, authorities found photographs of seemingly-random locations, likely to be where dead drops were made, in addition to crystallised substances in plastic bags, as well as BenefitPay receipts.
The defendant’s DNA was also found some of the narcotics packages.
He admitted to using drugs recreationally and traces of marijuana and meth were found in his urine.
&uuid=(email))