Imran warns he will not tolerate officers who help smuggle contraband into prisons

Home Minister Sheikh Imran Abdulla says he will not condone any prison officers who helps smuggle contraband into prisons, and that any officer found to have engaged in such an offense will not be allowed to remain under the employ of Maldives Correctional Service.

He made the remark at the opening of the workshop on countering the smuggle of contraband to prisons, held at the Maafushi Prison this Thursday.

Opening the workshop, Imran addressed widespread allegations of involvement of prison officers in the smuggle of contraband into prisons.

He stressed that all Maldives Correctional Service employees had a duty to uphold the public’s faith in the institution, and to maintain the honor and integrity of the institution.

 He said that any officer who ever got involved in the smuggle of contraband into prisons wasn’t qualified to be a prison officer, and that it wasn’t something he would tolerate.

“I want to be very clear on this. If an officer gets involved in smuggle of contraband into prisons, then that officer lacks the qualification to be under the employ of Maldives Correctional Service. I will not condone such an officer to remain under the employ of this institution. This isn’t something we will tolerate,” warned Imran.

He said that the smuggling routes into prisons remained the greatest challenge to maintaining the peace, safety and security of Maldivian prisons.

Imran said that stopping the smuggle of contraband was therefore the top priority to improve prison conditions.

He said that end-goal of the one-day workshop was for all officers partaking in the workshop to pool their knowledge and experience together to find ways to stop the smuggle of contraband, and create a functioning mechanism to stop the smuggle of contraband.