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Two drivers have been sentenced to 15 years in prison and fined BD10,000 each for being part of a drug-importation network, allegedly operated by kingpins based overseas.
One of them had most recently collected a parcel containing narcotics that arrived from Spain, and later admitted to being paid BD35 for each pick-up.
Two other Indian expatriates were sentenced to a year in prison and fined BD1,000 for possessing drugs for personal use.
All four men were convicted of possessing heroin, morphine and methamphetamine.
The High Criminal Court also ordered their deportation upon completion of their prison sentences and the confiscation of the illicit substances found in their possession.
According to court documents, a Customs Affairs officer became suspicious of a parcel that arrived from Spain while scanning incoming packages.
The matter was referred to the Anti-Narcotics Directorate, which formed a police team and deployed officers to the courier company’s office.
The suspects arrived in a white car, and the first defendant, 41, got out to collect the package before being arrested.
Officers reportedly found 15.7 grams of marijuana inside the vehicle.
Detectives concluded that the two men were part of a network that profited from receiving, storing, distributing and packaging drugs shipped through the mail.
The 41-year-old admitted that he picked up the package on the instructions of two men, known only as ‘Mustafa’ and ‘Ussman’, who paid him BD35 for each pick-up.
The box included four paper ‘rolls’ of different colours containing narcotics, as well as a plastic smoking pipe with heroin residue.
The defendant also admitted carrying out dead drops – placing drugs in agreed-upon locations for customers to collect – several times on the instructions of the same two men.
He further confessed to selling and using drugs.
He and his 43-year-old accomplice were found guilty of importing marijuana, while two other labourers, aged 29 and 33, were convicted of possessing narcotics for personal use.
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