Drugs hidden inside book covers led to an Asian man being jailed for five years and fined BD3,000 after a sting exposed his role in an organised smuggling ring. The First High Criminal Court issued the sentence after customs officers intercepted a suspicious parcel at Bahrain International Airport. The package, arriving from an Asian country, was scanned and found to contain a crystalline substance concealed within book covers. Upon inspection, the substance was identified as the drug “shabu” (methamphetamine), weighing 1.3 kilograms. Anti-Narcotics officers set up an operation to track down the intended recipient. The man was arrested after picking up the parcel, and a search of his car uncovered a black bag containing another 492.94 grams of suspected shabu, along with a precision scale. During questioning, the man admitted to collecting the parcel on behalf of another individual. Investigators uncovered an organised network smuggling drugs into Bahrain, with the defendant tasked with receiving, storing, and distributing the narcotics under instructions from the ringleader. Laboratory tests confirmed the drugs’ nature, while forensic analysis of the defendant’s phone revealed more evidence, including images and videos of narcotics and tools used in drug distribution.