Khaberni - The High Criminal Court in Bahrain punished a housewife in her forties with 10 years of imprisonment and fined her 5,000 dinars after convicting her of importing and using narcotics. She was arrested by anti-narcotics officers after receiving a package from a European country containing sweets, food items, and cosmetics with narcotics hidden inside.
A customs officer was inspecting a suspicious package from a European country bearing the accused's name. When it passed through the X-ray scanner, it showed high density inside. The officer opened the package and found food items, sweets, and six small green bags, and one bag containing eleven small red boxes with a herbal substance suspected to be marijuana weighing about 194.15 grams, hidden in a professional manner.
Consequently, the package was detained and marked, and a postal notice was sent to the owner of the package, who arrived the next day and signed the parcel receipt. When asked whether the package belonged to her, she confirmed it did and mentioned it contained cosmetics. The customs officer opened the package in front of her, releasing a strong herbal smell, and the accused stated it was the smell of marijuana, informing him that it had been sent to her by an Asian national to receive it.
Upon searching her car and home, a cigarette filled with narcotics and a piece of hashish, rolling paper, and a sensitive scale were found. Investigations revealed that the accused fully knew about the narcotics inside the package and had received it under the instructions of a person whose identity was not determined to further hand it over to someone else in exchange for getting narcotics for personal use.
The accused admitted during the public prosecution's investigations that she received the package under an agreement made with an Asian person in exchange for obtaining 30 grams of the hashish narcotic. She also confessed to using the hashish narcotic that she buys from the same person.
Therefore, the prosecution charged the accused with importing marijuana with the intent to trade in circumstances not legally permitted and possessing and acquiring hashish with the intent to use in circumstances not legally permitted.
