Bahrain: A Bahraini drug trafficker who allegedly recruited foreign women as drug mules has been arrested.
The 30-year-old, who previously served time in prison for drug dealing, has been identified as a major smuggler, sources told the GDN.
Initial investigations revealed the Bahraini travelled abroad and recruited several Asian women, who were used to smuggle hundreds of thousands of dinars worth of narcotics into Bahrain through Bahrain International Airport.
His latest operation was foiled by
police on Thursday when one of his alleged mules, a Thai woman, attempted to smuggle a kilo of methamphetamine, locally known as Shabu.
The GDN reported that the 25-year-old woman was arrested with the drugs, weighing over 1kg with a street value of BD10,000.
However, she told prosecutors yesterday that she was not aware the narcotics were in her luggage and was simply doing her friend “a favour”.
“She told prosecutors she met her co-defendant in a bar in Thailand,” said the sources.
“She said they then became friends and he took her back to Bangkok, where he told her he was going shopping for clothes to take with him back to Bahrain.
“She said that he asked her to help him pack his luggage into a red bag that he had brought with him.
“She claimed she did not know the red bag had been stitched up and fitted with a kilo of shabu.
“She said he had asked her to carry the bag with her as a favour because he was going to carry several other bags.
“She was then arrested as officials waited for her to arrive at Bahrain International Airport knowing that she was a newly recruited drug mule.”
Confiscated
The Bahraini was later arrested at his home in Muharraq and has denied any involvement when questioned by prosecutors, added the sources.
However, police confiscated bags that contained traces of shabu and pipes used to smoke the drug from the man’s home.
The 30-year-old man was yesterday charged with drug smuggling, along with the Thai woman and were both remanded in police custody for seven days pending investigations.
They both appeared before prosecutors where they denied the charge.
noorz@gdn.com.bh
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