KUWAIT: The new tougher anti-drugs law, which expands the death penalty cases and raises fines to unprecedented levels, comes into effect on Monday, the interior ministry announced. Authorities have launched awareness campaigns to highlight strict penalties, and at the same time opportunities offered to offenders to escape penalties, including treatment and rehabilitation.
First Deputy Prime Minister and Interior Minister Sheikh Fahad Al-Yousef Al-Sabah said last week the legislation opens a new era in Kuwait’s war against narcotics and psychotropic substances, adding that authorities have succeeded in reducing trafficking and smuggling by around 90 percent over the past 12 months. Senior anti-drugs officials also said that they have seized around 10 million pills and nearly three tons of drugs in the first 11 months of 2025, including over 40 kilograms of cocaine.
The new legislation stipulates the death penalty for at least 10 drug offences including the use of minors or people with mental illnesses to sell or promote drugs and pills. The death penalty is also stipulated for those who repeat the drugs crime, if the crime takes place in prisons, police stations, addiction treatment and rehabilitation centers, places of worship, educational institutions or sports clubs, the interior ministry said on Sunday in its awareness campaign.
The capital punishment also applies to officials who exploit their authority in committing drug crimes, for those who establish and manage organized drug organizations, and for those who force other people to consume narcotics or pills or administer drugs into the victims’ bodies without their knowledge.
Those who import or smuggle drugs or pills for the purpose of trafficking face the death penalty or life in jail coupled with a fine reaching up to KD 2 million, the highest fine in any drugs legislation. The same penalty applies to those who produce, manufacture or cultivate drugs and pills with the purpose of trafficking. Under the new legislation, courts can double the penalty if drug offenders use violence while committing the crime.
Meanwhile, Attorney General Saad Al-Safran announced on Sunday the establishment for the first time of the banking affairs prosecution, a special section responsible for investigating banking crimes, mainly electronic fraud, bank forgery and dud cheques. Safran said the new prosecution was established to deal with fast changing financial and banking transactions and strengthen trust in financial institutions, adding that the next phase will witness significant development in the mechanisms of combating crime in the banking sector. The new prosecution sector will start operations next year, the public prosecution said in a statement.
Al-Safran explained that members of the new banking prosecution will be selected based on objective criteria, including professional competence and practical experience, to build an investigative and prosecutorial framework capable of addressing evolving financial crimes. The office will, for the first time, prepare periodic analytical studies and reports monitoring banking crime methods and proposing practical solutions, positioning it as a key reference for analysis and information. The prosecution will also roll out legal awareness programs when needed, targeting institutions and the public to raise awareness of digital crimes and related legal procedures in line with the rise of electronic fraud.
