Two expatriates jailed for life for importing more than 7kg of hashish via air mail from Thailand have lost their first court appeal.
The Supreme Criminal Appeals Court upheld the 25-year terms issued against the two Pakistani men, by the High Criminal Court last month, along with a BD5,000 fine.
A third co-appellant was earlier found innocent of all charges.
The two men were found to possess more than 9kg of hashish in total, which is considered by the court as an enormous stock of narcotics. Cases involving similar amounts of drugs have also received life sentence rulings.
The ‘grass’ was reportedly elaborately hidden in a package containing jeans, which was marked as suspicious after it was scanned by Customs officers.
After receiving a report from Bahrain Post concerning the dubious box, an Anti-Narcotics Directorate officer opened it and reportedly found five bags filled with a ‘grassy, green substance’, weighing a total of 7.4kg.
As soon as the 37-year-old appellant came to the post office to receive the package, addressed to his name, he was arrested, and his home was searched based on a prosecution warrant.
Under the man’s bed, policemen found two chunks of hashish, weighing 1.64kg. The box and under-bed trove weighed a total of 9.04kg.
The Pakistani truck driver told investigators that the package was ordered by his 27-year-old compatriot, but was addressed to him.
He claimed that he was asked by his 27-year-old co-appellant to pick up the mail and the hashish found in his residence was also given by him. The phone number listed on the package belonged to the co-appellant.
“Investigations found that the two suspects worked together to import large quantities of narcotics from overseas via air cargo,” the detective said during Public Prosecution hearings.
“They use smuggling methods that make the drugs difficult to detect and uncover, and then go on to sell the narcotics in Bahrain.”
According to a forensic report, traces of the first appellant’s DNA were found intermingled with the contraband found in his room.
Text messages between the two reportedly contained photographs of locations in which the narcotics were supposedly stashed away, as well as images of crystal substances believed to be methamphetamine.
In the initial trial, a third suspect faced judges alongside the two appellants, but he was declared innocent in February and acquitted of all charges.
The driver was implicated after authorities searched his phone and found conversations with the 27-year-old, who was later identified and charged.
zainab@gdnmedia.bh
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