A Doha Criminal Court has sentenced two expatriate men to 10 years in jail and a fine of QR200,000 each for attempts to smuggle illicit drugs.

Local Arabic daily Arrayah reported yesterday that a third defendant was sentenced to one year in jail and fined QR10,000 for illicit drug consumption.

The case started when a Bangladeshi maid told the representative of her employer, who was helping to process her residency, that an unknown person asked her to deliver a sealed bag to someone who would contact her in Doha. The representative felt there should be something suspicious in the bag and refused to deliver it to one of the defendants who called him.

Hidden in the bag was around three kg of the illicit drug marijuana. The defendant offered to pay him QR15,000 for delivering the bag, so the representative called the police and co-ordinated with them to trap the culprits. Eventually, one of the defendants was caught while receiving the bag and told the police about the others, who were also arrested while attempting to receive the bag.