The High Appeals Court upheld the conviction of a university student accused of importing a controlled substance disguised in children’s shampoo bottles. The Appeals Court confirmed the defendant’s 10 years in prison and fined him 5,000 dinars.
The defendant attempted to import the illicit substance with the assistance of an accomplice abroad, using three bottles of children’s shampoo. It was later discovered that the liquid inside these bottles was a drug used in electronic shisha devices, which the defendant intended to sell for 10 dinars per shisha head.
The details of the case trace back to when a customs officer, while inspecting incoming parcels at the mail inspection department in preparation for entry into the Kingdom of Bahrain, became suspicious of a package arriving from an Asian country. The officer passed it through an X-ray machine and upon examination, found three bottles of children’s shampoo containing liquid substances inside the package, suspected to be drugs.
The officer confiscated the package and handed it over to the Anti-Narcotics Directorate for further inspection. Upon examination by the directorate, it was confirmed that the seized liquid was a controlled substance, specifically cannabis.
Subsequent investigations revealed that the defendant was importing drugs from an Asian country with the intention of trafficking and personal use. The investigations also revealed that the defendant had sent a sum of 1,300 dinars to an unidentified individual in the Asian country he imported the drugs from, in exchange for receiving the confiscated 600 milliliters of the illicit substance.
During the interrogations conducted by the Public Prosecution, the defendant confessed to drug use and admitted to importing drugs from an Asian country by sending bank transfers.
He would then receive the drugs in the form of mailed parcels, which he would further process by filling them into shisha heads for subsequent sale at a price of 10 dinars per head. The Public Prosecution charged the 23-year-old defendant with unauthorised drug importation, as it was conducted outside the legal framework.
