An unemployed expat has been found guilty of importing more than 400 MDMA (Ecstasy) tablets which were so expertly stuffed in a toy washing machine that the Customs could not flag the package.
The High Criminal Court sentenced the 24-year-old man to five years in prison, fined him BD3,000 and ordered to deport him after he completes his sentence.
Even though the package passed through postal inspection undetected, authorities managed to track down the Pakistani defendant when the package was delivered to the wrong house.
However, the man’s defence attorney claimed that the man who first opened the box could be the real criminal, adding that his client was framed and wrongfully incriminated.
MDMA (an abbreviation of 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine), also called Molly or Ecstasy, is a lab-made (synthetic) drug that has effects similar to stimulants like methamphetamine.
“One day we received a box in the mail, which we thought was the makeup my wife had ordered from an online store,” a 44-year-old Bahraini blue-collar worker told the Public Prosecution.
“It was immediately clear that the package didn’t contain the things my wife had purchased, but I was curious to see what was inside it,” added the key witness, who lives in Janabiyah.
“I opened it and saw some children’s toys, including a toy washing machine, but it was way too heavy.
“I noticed that one of the screws on the toy was missing, so I unscrewed the rest and I found things stuffed inside that looked like drugs, so I called the police.”
The package was handed to detectives of the Interior Ministry’s Anti-Narcotics Directorate, who found inside the toy a ‘clay-like’ substance, and inside it where small plastic bags containing pills.
Altogether, there were 439 pills, which were later found to be MDMA, a hallucinogen usually consumed in recreational parties for the energising effect it produces.
Since the defendant’s name was on the package label, following an investigation detectives found from confidential informants that the defendant imported drugs to sell in Bahrain.
Meanwhile, the expat’s lawyer accused the witnesses in an attempt to shift blame from his defendant, but failed.
“The witnesses and the shipping company were complicit in making my client appear to be the person behind the package,” the defence memo read.
“They were the ones that put the pills inside the toys and then summoned the defendant to collect the box. Before even having the chance to open the package and peer at its contents, my client was arrested.
“Instead of keeping the streets safe, the police detective chose to plan an ambush. The main witness was the original perpetrator, and the one who masterminded the arrest of my client as he appeared to be red-handed.
“What if the narcotics were put in the toy by the man who supposedly opened the box? After taking the toy apart, are we to believe that he put everything back in its place for the police to find?
“The detective believed his story without scrutinising it, and then made up an investigation just to get permission to arrest my client, when all he did was sign for the package.”
The High Criminal Court, however, found the defendant guilty of smuggling MDMA with the intention of selling it in the kingdom, and sentenced him to five years in prison.
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