Incoming financial transactions require regulation: Fathih

Deputy Commissioner of Maldives Customs Service Fathih Ali has said that incoming and outgoing financial transactions need to be regulated in the Maldives.

Speaking at a press conference at Maldives Customs today to provide information on efforts to prevent entry of drugs to Maldives, Fathih said that drugs enter Maldives through financial transactions involving large sums of money, and that it is important to investigate where this money ends up.

“We have to regulate how money comes in and leaves the country. There’s no country in the world other than Maldives, where a person can take a briefcase filled with money to the bank and request for it to be deposited in his account. They don’t ask how he obtained that money. Some ordinary people have millions of Rufiyaa in their accounts. What work did they do to get that money?” he said.

He informed that most drugs come in to Maldives through India, and that an agreement had been signed with India to share information related to this matter.

He said that import of drugs to Maldives cannot be reduced due to the high demand for drugs here, and urged the government to make efforts to build a society free of drugs, and provide rehabilitation facilities to those dependent on drugs.

“Our country’s location is advantageous for world producers and traffickers of drugs. So they market their drugs here, similar to how farmer thinks about where he can sell his products. Maldives does not produce drugs, everyone knows that, so producers around the world try to sell it here,” he said.