Arrests made with 27 kg of drugs smuggled by air

A group of people have been arrested with 27 kilograms of drugs smuggled into the Maldives from India on an airplane.

At a press conference held today, the Head of Customs Intelligence and Risk Management, Ismail Hamdhoon said that a combined weight of about 27 kilograms of drugs was seized in two different cases on Friday and Saturday.

He said that on Friday, a number of suspected drug packets were seized from a local man that arrived in the country on board a Maldivian flight from Trivandrum, India. The Head Superintendent of the Drugn Enforcement Department of the Maldives Police Service, Moosa Ali said that the drugs seized on Friday were 7.27 kilograms of hash oil and 1.09 kilograms of heroin.

Superintendent Moosa Ali said that when the man was questioned, he said that it was given to him to bring it over for someone.

Following the man’s response, a special operation was conducted by the Police and Customs service and arrested a 21-year-old man and a 16-year-old boy that came to receive the drugs.

Moosa Ali said that the two that were arrested in the operation had preexisting criminal records with the Police.

Superintendent Moosa Ali said that 10 kilograms of hash oil packets were found from the luggage of a 29-year-old man that arrived in the Maldives from Bangalore, India, on Saturday onboard an Air India flight.

He too, said that it was given to him to be handed over to someone. A man who went to the airport receive the drugs were arrested at the airport and another man was related to the crime was arrested in Hulhumalé.

When the residence of the man who went to the airport to receive the drugs was searched with a court order, about 7 kilograms of hash oil and 1.9 kilo grams of heroin were found according to the Police.

Superintendent Moosa said that a large sum of money and equipment used to pack drugs were found at the residence of the second man that was arrested.

All six people involved in the two cases have been remanded by the Court.