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A suspected drug dealer watched an instructional video on how best to market and distribute narcotics, the High Criminal Court heard.
He was among three defendants on trial for allegedly importing unregulated CBD oil – likely to contain toxic ingredients – via airmail.
A Customs Affairs officer, with the help of a police sniffer dog, identified the package as suspicious, and a 23-year-old expat was arrested when he came to collect it.
He earlier admitted that he received the package on behalf of a 30-year-old co-defendant, who had already been deported from Bahrain for similar crimes.
Public Prosecution officers reportedly found the ‘how to’ drug selling manifesto when the defendant’s smart phone was searched.
The youngest defendant testified that he was ordered by the 30-year-old to hand over the contraband to a third suspect, a 26-year-old, whose alleged role was to store the drugs.
Prosecutors stated that the men constituted a three-tiered operation, in which the oldest remotely arranged the narcotics shipments and the youngest picked them up.
The third operator allegedly handed the synthetic cannabinoids over to other dealers, who sold the illicit substances and brought back a profit.
The three men were described as Asian in court documents, though their true nationality was not disclosed.
“We suspected a package and confirmed the presence of drugs using a dog from the K-9 unit,” the customs agent earlier testified. “The substances were further tested in the lab.
“We handed the box over to the Anti-Narcotics Directorate, which set up an operation to hand whoever comes to collect it a bogus package.”
When he signed for the mail, the defendant was arrested, but police recruited him in the investigation, turning him on his co-defendants.
The 23-year-old communicated with the 30-year-old under police supervision, and the latter arranged for the 26-year-old to take the mail, while an ambush was set up to apprehend the other defendant.
“While the two defendants were in custody, the oldest was calling them and trying to get in touch with them.
“Through some inquiry, it appeared that the 30-year-old has been deported from the country, and is the head of an organised network which imports narcotics with intention to sell them.
“He is in charge of co-ordinating between smugglers and promoters.” CBD oil is derived from cannabis and is a popular natural remedy for many ailments. However, it is outlawed in Bahrain and other countries as the liquid may be cut or laced with ingredients harmful to users’ health.
According to the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), synthetic cannabinoids ‘pose significant adverse health risks to users’ because ‘the purity of these substances is uncertain and inconsistent’.
A DEA report stated that ‘the abuse of these substances for their psychoactive properties is concerning’ and that they both pose a serious risk to the user.
Judges set September 9 as the date that a lawyer will be appointed to represent the 26-year-old, and for the 23-year-old’s attorney to make defence arguments.
zainab@gdnmedia.bh
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