Timothy Rutherford British expat was sentenced to life in jail

01:31 Timothy Rutherford who worked as a civil contractor with British forces in southern Iraq 0 Comments

Timothy Rutherford British expat was sentenced to life in jail Sunday by Kuwait's criminal court after he was caught smuggling hashish and alcohol into the oil-rich emirate from neighboring Iraq in the latest case of drug trafficking that suggests a surge in abuse of illicit stimulants in the Arab world at large.Timothy Rutherford who worked as a civil contractor with British forces in southern Iraq was arrested last September while crossing into Kuwait with 49 kilos (108 pounds) of hashish, liquor and cash.
As a trade free zone Dubai is perhaps the busiest drug gateway in the GulfAlthough Sunday's verdict is not final and can be appealed, it is standard in a country where penalties for possession, use, or trafficking illegal drugs in Kuwait are severe, and convicted offenders can expect long jail sentences and heavy fines.

In February 2009 three Americans were caught allegedly peddling marijuana in Kuwait City's downtown after using the military postal service to smuggle marijuana into the country.

Three major drug raids in Dubai recently – all involving foreigners -- yielded a haul of 651,000 Captagon pills at the airport, and several kilograms of heroin intercepted by police and customs officers.In the rush to start a new life in the UAE, many expats from Western countries ignore local laws that could land them a heavy fine, or jail sentence. In the last 12 months, 64 British nationals have been arrested in the UAE for drugs offences.
British DJ Raymond Bingham, better known as Grooverider, was sentenced to four years in jail last year after officials found 2.16 grams of marijuana in his luggage. American music producer Dallas Austin, who has worked with Michael Jackson and Madonna, was given four years for possessing cocaine and other drugs.The International Narcotics Control Board (INCB), the U.N. organization that monitors anti-drug activities worldwide, warned that the Gulf has increasingly become a gateway for drug traffickers. It said heroin that has passed through the burgeoning network of free zones, ports and airports like those in the UAE has later been seized in destinations as far away as Hong Kong and Australia.World counter-narcotics chiefs have warned that drug traffickers are “increasingly exploiting the situation in Iraq” to smuggle drugs like heroin and cannabis resin from drug-producing regions to Jordan and then on to the Arabian Peninsula. Syria Jordan and Iraq are major smuggling hubs for bringing drugs into the wealthy Gulf region, according to a 2008 United Nations report. A 2006 poll of 1.4 million Arab youth suggests unemployment as main cause of drug useAlthough the Gulf area would not normally be considered an area of concern with regard to drug abuse because of "the strict hand of government with regard to alcohol and drugs that are proscribed by the Quran,” according to the U.N. report, drug gangs are on the rise because the UAE's free trade zones have become international transit points for heroine, hashish and other illicit drugs. Almost a third of global seizures of amphetamines happened in Saudi Arabia where over 60 million Captagon tablets, 17 tons of hashish, 939 tons of Qatt, and over 70 kg of heroin were seized in 2008 and the first quarter of 2009, prompting the Directors of Anti-Drug Abuse Departments at the Gulf Cooperation Council to meet in Qatar last week to strengthen the level of coordination among member states for tackling drug smuggling.No accurate stats on the number of drug addicts in the Arab world exist, but INCB estimated that there are more than half a million heroin addicts alone.A 2006 poll of 1.4 million youth in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region conducted by ImagineNations and the website of famous Muslim preacher Amr Khaled suggested that unemployment and the absence of job opportunities were the main cause of disaffection among Arab youth that lead to crime and drug abuse. Of all the youth populations in the world, those in MENA have the lowest participation rate in the labor force; 40 percent of young people are employed compared to a worldwide average of 54 percent.
Regulations and strict laws would not be enough to eliminate drug trafficking and abuse according to INCB. Poor level of awareness and the lack of an de-addiction drive among Arab youth and anti-drug campaigns are factors that slow down governments' efforts to reduce consumption