A heavy goods truck driver with a drug dealing sideline has been sentenced to 15 years in prison and fined BD10,000 by the High Criminal Court for possessing ketamine and synthetic cannabinoids to sell.
A police sting operation to capture his accomplices failed because the defendant attempted to commit suicide during the investigation, the court heard.
The Filipino expatriate was arrested when he came to receive a mail package containing 50 sheets of paper, saturated with unregulated CBD oil. In the same box was a bag holding 18.8gm of ketamine.
Before being handed the package, he was asked what was in it and he reportedly answered ‘it’s just papers’. He later admitted that a man named ‘Anas’ had ordered him to pick it up and transport it to him.
This unidentified man would task the defendant with dividing up the substances received and distributing them around the country to GPS locations provided to him.
The police tried to arrest him too but were unable to continue with the ambush plan when the 30-year-old Filipino man was unfit to continue his role in the operation.
During a search of the defendant’s Gudaibiya flat officers found 18 cans of a liquid, weighing 500.7gm, suspected of being CBD oil, as well as 32 joints, flakes of a dried plant material thought to be marijuana, and a bag of crystal ‘shabu’ or meth. Additionally, three scales were found, plus a used needle with liquid residue on it, a smoking pipe and empty bottles.
On top of the prison term and fine, judges ruled to confiscate the drugs and deport the man after his sentence was completed.
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