A housewife who ran a drug den from her apartment, after being released from a five-year prison spell, has lost her appeal against a life sentence at the Supreme Criminal Appeals Court.
In September, the Bahraini woman was sentenced to 25 years behind bars and fined BD5,000 for selling methamphetamine and heroin while having already been convicted on drug trading charges in the past.
The 38-year-old woman reportedly used her East Riffa flat to sell drugs, got high with friends and sometimes even threw narcotics from the balcony to customers. Authorities reportedly found the apartment littered with an assortment of drugs, needles, pipes and other drug paraphernalia.
In the original High Criminal Court trial, nine other Bahraini defendants were sentenced to a year behind bars and fined BD1,000 each for purchasing drugs from her and using them.
The nine men, aged between 31 and 45, were known to frequent her apartment as a haven to ‘shoot up’ narcotics. Six of the nine co-defendants contested the verdict, and they also lost their appeals.
All 10 defendants were found guilty of using meth, while six were found guilty of using hashish, three of pregabalin (Lyrica), seven of morphine, three of alprazolam (Xanax), two of clonazepam (Klonopin) and one of diazepam (Valium).
All the suspects were tested for traces of drugs and stimulants in their urine, and their samples contained two or more of the aforementioned substances. Only last year, the housewife completed a five-year prison sentence, having been found guilty of distributing narcotics for free, importing drugs and possessing pornographic material.
Her repeated criminal convictions were considered an ‘aggravating circumstance’ by the court, meaning that she was shown less mercy, which explains why the penalty was so steep.
“When the defendant left prison in 2024, she immediately started promoting and selling drugs again,” an Anti-Narcotics Directorate officer testified.
“We received intelligence from informants that she had returned to her old practices, so we obtained a warrant to arrest her and search her home.”
He stated that a team of officers, along with women police, went to Riffa to apprehend her, where they found two of her co-defendants, both aged 38, using drugs with her. He added that all nine Bahraini men had been spotted entering the flat at one point or another.
The contraband found in the apartment includes hashish, powdered heroin, CBD oil, tramadol pills, wrapping paper, two scales, needles, vapes, bongs and other prescription medication.
The housewife told the Public Prosecution that she began using narcotic substances 17 years ago, when she was 21.
Her criminal record shows an extensive list of charges and convictions stretching all the way back to 2003.
zainab@gdnmedia.bh
&uuid=(email))