Desperate times call for desperate measures, a court heard, but dumb decision-making can land you in the dock.
Two men, accused of importing and selling drugs, revealed their sorry background stories to judges at the High Criminal Court in mitigation to the charges they face.
An Indian defendant said that he was working as a taxi driver despite earning a degree in marine navigation and, after being offered a better job in Thailand, ended up being duped into smuggling drugs into Bahrain.
His Pakistani co-defendant said that he was forced into selling narcotics by a loan shark, who had lent him money to pay debts in his home country, but later started threatening his family over non-payment.
The two men are standing trial for allegedly trading in hashish and meth, and the 21-year-old Indian was also charged with possessing hashish for recreational use.
The Indian traveller was arrested shortly upon arriving at Bahrain International Airport after an airport Customs officer noticed that he appeared anxious and ‘high’.
When his suitcase was opened, seven bags of hashish weighing 3.1kg were allegedly found.
He was reportedly quick to admit that he had collected the drugs from Bangkok to deliver to Bahrain in return for a job and a payment of 50,000 Indian rupees (BD208).
According to a detective, the defendant was co-operative with police, and continued to communicate with the people who had organised his illicit trip.
Although now in police custody, he continued to do as his dealers told him, placing the goods in a hotel room as instructed, which led to the eventual arrest of his co-defendant, a 28-year-old Pakistani, who was sent to pick up the merchandise.
In the co-defendant’s car, police reportedly found four rolled up bags of hashish and 24 ‘rolls’ of a crystallised substance, later confirmed to be methamphetamine.
The substances were ‘expertly concealed’ in the man’s car boot, according to a detective.
Court documents state that the Pakistani admitted to selling drugs for a man he borrowed money from, in return for his loan being written off.
In prosecution questioning, the two defendants each gave an account of their lives to prove that they were forced into the situation where they were found to be in possession of drugs.
“The accusations against me are false, I didn’t know what was inside the suitcase,” the young Indian earlier told the Public Prosecution. “I lived in a medium-level economic condition back home in Tamil Nadu, India, and I work as a taxi driver.
“I met another taxi driver who became my friend, and I told him I was looking for a better job since I had a university degree in marine navigation.
“About a month ago, he reached out and said he had referred me to a person in Kerala who had an opportunity to offer.
“The Kerala contact told me there was a position for me in Thailand, and that he was working on the procedures of acquiring a visa for me, and he asked for a copy of my passport.”
He added that he travelled to Thailand, where he was asked to pick up a suitcase from a parking lot, and was subsequently wired 30,000 rupees (BD125) to his bank account.
During transit in India, he was also given airline tickets back to Thailand.
Meanwhile, the Pakistani defendant, who works as an electrician for a BD130 monthly salary, had his own tale to tell.
“Four years ago, I started a clothes manufacturing business back home, and I had an accountant who took care of its affairs,” he testified. “I bought devices and specialised machines by going into debt, and I would pay the debt amounts through the revenue made by my business.
“But two months ago, my accountant sold off all of the devices, took the money and ran off to Afghanistan, but the people and the companies I was indebted to still asked for their money back.
“So, I had to ask a man for help and he agreed to pay off my debt for me, and gave me a month to pay it back to him. He went to my father back home and handed him the amount.
“He kept asking for his money back, but I told him that I worked in Bahrain on a BD130 monthly salary, and that I could not pay him back in such a short time frame.
“He would beat up and threaten my dad, and also asked my friends for money. My dad called me to tell me that he would embarrass him and assault him in public over the loan.
“When I reached out to him, he said I could work for him to pay off my debt. The work would be to pick up drugs from locations he sends to me, and that I just have to collect them and put them in another place.”
The court set March 31 as the date a verdict will be issued in the case.
zainab@gdnmedia.bh
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