Drugs worth MVR 25 million were seized in one year: Customs

Maldives Customs has said that 31 kgs of drugs, with a street value of about MVR 25 million, were seized between July 2012 and July 2013.

Customs said this in a report published on the occasion of its anniversary.

The report states that within this period, 83 operations were conducted to prevent the import of drugs and other illegal items, and 288 cases were filed to the Customs Investigation Section, which included 55 cases related to illegal imports and 174 cases related to forged prices.

Customs said that various groups had been fined MVR 10 million over this period for violating the law and regulations.

They further said that an express channel was introduced in April this year, allowing them to cut the time required to process import and export documents from 12 to 3 hours.