Five-year jail term for Asian woman caught with meth at airport

TDT | Manama

Email : editor@newsofbahrain.com

An Asian woman caught at Bahrain airport with more than a kilo of methamphetamine hidden in her suitcase has been sentenced to five years in prison after appeal judges overturned a lower court’s decision to spare her punishment.

She was also fined BD3,000 and will be deported permanently once her sentence is served.

The High Criminal Court of Appeal sided with the Public Prosecution, which argued that the woman should not have been exempted from liability.

Her statements to the police, they said, offered nothing of substance and played no part in uncovering anyone else involved.

Investigation

The court found that it was the investigation, not her cooperation, that led to the arrest of another suspect and the unravelling of a wider trafficking network.

It began with a routine screening of luggage.

A customs officer at Bahrain International Airport spotted something unusual in a suitcase arriving from an Asian country.

He applied the agreed signal. When the woman collected the bag and made her way through the green channel, she was stopped for inspection.

Crystalline substance

A crystalline substance was discovered, hidden in the base of the case.

A narcotics officer said his team had been called in after the suspected drugs were found.

During questioning, the woman named a man who, she claimed, had arranged all her travel.

He was arrested later as he tried to leave the country.

Further enquiries uncovered a smuggling ring said to be moving psychoactive substances into Bahrain for commercial sale.

Drugs

The woman’s role, according to prosecutors, was to bring the drugs into the country.

The man was meant to receive them, divide them up and distribute them. Both were paid.

Lab tests confirmed that the material weighed 1,304.3 grams and contained methamphetamine. A video on the woman’s phone appeared to show the same kind of substance.

Images on the man’s phone showed capsules, powders and various public locations believed to be used as drop-off points, in a method commonly employed to pass drugs anonymously.

Intent

The woman was charged with bringing and possessing methamphetamine with intent to traffic.

The man, aged 31, was accused of assisting her by booking her flight, arranging her hotel and facilitating her entry into Bahrain.

Prosecutors said these actions directly ena - bled the offence to take place.