All 79 suspects arrested from Anbaraa festival tested positive for drugs, police reveal

All 79 suspects taken into police custody from the island of Anbaraa in Vaavu atoll tested positive for drugs, police have revealed.

Briefing the press today, Chief Inspector Abdulla Satheeh explained that police received intelligence information suggesting that alcohol and drugs were being used and sold at the two-day music festival held on the uninhabited island.

Police raided the island with a court order at midnight on Friday night (April 18), he noted.

The Drug Enforcement Department, Specialist Operations, police intelligence department, and the forensic department conducted the operation, Satheeh said.

Upon searching the island as well as the 198 partygoers, Satheeh said police discovered different types of drugs and more than MVR90,000 (US$5,836) in cash.

In addition to beer cans, the drugs confiscated from the island included pills, LSD stickers, and hash oil joints as well as rubber packets, cellophane packets, and film canisters containing cannabis, Satheeh said.

The drugs, beer cans, and cash were displayed in a video presentation at the press briefing.

While all 198 persons on the island were held and searched, the chief inspector noted that the 79 individuals were arrested after drugs were found either in their possession or at the scene.

Police revealed earlier that the 79 suspects included one female minor, 19 women and 59 men, including one foreign male.

While the remaining 119 were released without charge, Satheeh revealed that none of them were tested for drug use.

Arrangements were not in place to conduct drug tests on the island, he added.

The 79 persons taken into custody were arrested either with drugs in their possession or because police suspected they were under the influence of drugs, Satheeh noted.

Contrary to media reports claiming that a number of people were naked, Satheeh said individuals of both genders were “wearing revealing clothing” when police raided the island.

Asked about the organisers of the festival and lease holder of the uninhabited island, Satheeh said he could not disclose further details as the initial stage of the investigation.

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7 thoughts on “All 79 suspects arrested from Anbaraa festival tested positive for drugs, police reveal”

  1. Ah the story changes to "revealing clothing". Boohoohoo I can see a little bit of thigh and shoulders.

    Like I've said before: everyone who is sane and can afford it: time to get out of this "country".

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  2. Not surprised all 79 arrested persons
    have tested positive for drugs.....after all, you true believers are the most drugged up country in South Asia!!
    Some of the revellers were naked?
    .....really?.....short, fat and naked Maldivians?.....yuck, yuck and yuck.

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  3. The mad police, boasting and having media briefing if they have conquered a new planet after raiding a party of unruly teenagers , This the fishermen Islands of moronic people. Things you see here are strange, the whole Fishermen Republic will be thrilled and the rumors will be heard in every corner of the Fishing Chain about the incident, some will hail the moronic police for their bravery for doing such successful operation of invading the privacy of people and humiliating them. This is a country where people enjoy to spy on privacy, and have no other things in life other than peeping in to others business. What a news briefing ….! Of course what else they have, no operation desert storm, no operation for freedom of some oppressed people….! But still they the mad police have to make them look like some important people like world class police force. The realty will never change, the mad police will be fishermen republic of moronic people, you can’t have any special operation that will be considered as anything special by sane people, still having said that it may be a grand show for Fishermen Republic.

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  4. Most of those packets in this picture are empty. When you do a drug haul you don't show off a bunch of empty packets. What exactly are they smoking inside the MPS?

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  5. Finally the Government + Police is doing something against corruption and drugs.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5KcRl1p2waM
    Scorpions - Wind Of Change

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  6. these are big achievement for the police for busting drug users & pushers. i hope the police will arrest the drug addicts too in male', walking like a zombies in the streets.

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  7. For Maldivians, personal freedoms are in peril…and it’s an individual fight to guard against it. Personal freedoms, such as being nude in the toilet, if publicized is a crime..Like they bust open the toilet doors n accuse yer of flashing?? People indulge personal freedoms such as wearing swim wear or bedroom wear at private occasions… And collective blame is wrong when each of 79 people are individuals..Some of the best and brightest, creative talents, assaulted by Police at a peaceful party just so as to shame them in a devious plan to muzzle them,, A coupla drug carriers and their stuff with a few bottles of booze on a tourist picnic island cannot be blamed on all.. The so called ‘positive’ tests hv not been verified…And notice the Magic Number? 79. That’s Gayoom’s macabre joke that he did just the same in ‘79 and had sadistic jerk offs about it all his life. That year well known youth’s such as Syyed Hassan, Syed Ali, Nooh and a wide cross section of society were jailed, a Baathist Pseudo Arab political trick to weaken youth as a collective political entity…

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