Customs seize drugs worth Rf1.72m over five months

Maldives Customs Service has revealed that drugs worth about Rf1.72m have been seized this year by their special operations.

Chief Customs Officer Ahmed Simah said today at a press conference at Customs Building that 2.1kg of drugs, worth about Rf1.72m, have been seized in seven drug-related cases this year.

Customs seized 8.9kg of drugs in 2010, and 6.3kg of drugs in 2011.

He said that under their special operation, Police, Armed Forces and Customs officials have been focusing on monitoring Ibrahim Nasir International Airport, Male’ Commercial Harbour, and the waters surrounding industrial island Thilafushi since 6 May 2012.

Since the beginning of the month, checks had been conducted on 11 vessels which departed from Maldives, 32 supply dhonis, six flights, 67 consignments, 23 vehicles, and 560 people.

Simah said that checks conducted on Maldivian ship Reina which was docked in Maldives on 2 May, revealed 12 jars of hashish oil hidden under the bed of one of the ship’s employees, Adhnaan Moosa, 55.

Also, checks made on FVK Akram on 4 May revealed 8.14kg of drugs, and 19.4g opiate in the possession of two Pakistani employees of the vessel.

Cannabis of 13.6kg was also caught, inside a VCR in the room of a Sri Lankan employee of MV Muttapioneer on 7 May.

Through checks made at airports, on 12 February, 55 bullets of drugs were caught on a Pakistani national Imtiyaz Khan who arrived in Maldives from Sri Lanka, and 82 bullets were caught on another Pakistani national Ishfag. Both persons had tried to bring in the drugs by swallowing them.

Another 76 bullets were caught on a Maldivian who arrived from Trivandrum on 29 March.

Police have completed their investigations on these cases and sent them to PG Office.

“We also caught eight bottles of alcohol and two cans of beer on 10 April, in a Maldives in-flight catering vehicle which had cleaned an airplane,” Sinah said.