Accused drug courier avoids trafficking punishment after assisting police investigations

TDT | Manama

Email: mail@newsofbahrain.com

A man accused of bringing drugs into Bahrain for sale has been spared punishment for trafficking after helping police identify two other suspects linked to a wider dealing ring, the courts have heard.

The case dates back to July 2025, when the first defendant arrived through Bahrain International Airport from an Asian country.

His luggage did not arrive with him and he remained in Bahrain for eight days before receiving a call telling him the bags had turned up.

When the luggage was sent through the X-ray machine, a customs officer became suspicious and the bags were pulled aside for a closer search.

Narcotics

Officers found herbal material suspected to be narcotics, and the man was handed to the Anti-Narcotics Directorate.

According to his lawyer, Eman Hassan, he told investigators he had been sent by two other defendants to travel to an Asian country, collect the drugs, and bring them into Bahrain.

Prosecutors said the two men had arranged the trip, covered his travel costs, and left Bahrain the day after he arrived.

The Public Prosecution charged the three men with bringing, possessing and holding narcotic substances for the purpose of trafficking in circumstances not authorised by law.

The first defendant also faced a separate accusation linked to possession and holding with intent to import, sell and use.

Investigators said enquiries linked the first defendant to an organised drug-selling network led by an unknown person abroad, and that the second and third defendants recruited him and handed him the drugs to sell in Bahrain before leaving the country.

Investigation

The first defendant admitted during the prosecution investigation that he had received the drugs overseas from the second and third defendants in return for money, and brought them into Bahrain for sale.

When the case reached court, the first defendant denied the trafficking allegation, while the second and third defendants did not attend.

The court issued a judgment in the presence of the first defendant and in absentia against the other two.

The court exempted the first defendant from punishment on the importation and trafficking count, saying he cooperated after his arrest and identified the second and third defendants as the men who asked him to bring the drugs.

Exemption

The court said they were traced through his help, and ruled that he qualified for exemption under Article 53 of Law No. 15 of 2007 on narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances.

He was convicted, however, of drug use, and sentenced to three years in prison and fined BD1,000.

The second and third defendants were sentenced to life in prison and fined BD5,000 each.

The court also ordered the deportation of all three after serving their sentences, and the confiscation of the seized items.