The Maldives Police Services have discovered a marijuana plant in the artificial beach area in Malé.
The police searched the beach volley area on a tip-off and found the plant under a staircase at 11:15 pm on Sunday night.
The plant has been confiscated.
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(0)The Criminal Court has handed an MVR1000 (US$64.9) to a Fuvahmulah Island man for brewing alcohol.
The Maldives Police Services arrested Mohamed Saeed on October 1, 2011 on a tip off while he was brewing alcohol in his house with another individual. The police discovered utensils used for alcohol brewing and a 500 ml bottle containing alcohol.
Saeed has been ordered to pay the fine within 7 days – by February 16.
According to the police, Saeed has a record of drug abuse, theft, mugging, and sexual harassment.
(0)Dislikes(0)The ringleader of a nationwide drug network convicted and jailed in November departed to Sri Lanka last night, ostensibly for medical treatment, local media has learned.
Ibrahim Shafaz Abdul Razzaq, 32, of Maafanu Lonumidhilige, was sentenced to 18 years in prison and fined MVR75,000 (US$4,860) after being found guilty of drug trafficking.
According to newspaper Haveeru, the Maldives Correctional Services (MCS) was not informed of a date for the inmate’s return. Shafaz was not accompanied by an MCS officer, the local daily reported.
Opposition-aligned private broadcaster Raajje TV reported that a “reliable source” claimed Shafaz was not listed in the immigration control system as a convict when he boarded the midnight flight with his family.
Raajje TV also alleged that Shafaz was allowed to leave the country on orders from Tourism Minister Ahmed Adeeb.
Responding to the allegation, Adeeb told Minivan News today that as tourism minister he did not have “a say in the decisions by the independent institution formed by the law called Maldives Correctional Service.”
“Raajje TV is a very irresponsible media directing all the allegations towards me politically,” the deputy leader of the ruling Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM) said.
MCS officials could not be reached for comment today.
President’s Office Spokesperson Ibrahim Muaz was meanwhile unable to confirm for Raajje TV whether Shafaz was among 24 convicts whose sentences were commuted by President Abdulla Yameen last month.
President Yameen commuted the sentences of persons banished, serving jail sentences or under house arrest “with conditions.”
In the final days of his administration, former President Dr Mohamed Waheed Hassan also commuted the sentences of 35 convicts under authority granted by the Clemency Act.
Individuals convicted of murder, terrorism, a crime with a punishment (hadd) prescribed in Islamic Shariah, disturbing the peace – including attacking or threatening a security officer or vandalising public property – child abuse, rape, homosexuality, and drug trafficking involving an amount more than four grams were not eligible for clemency, the President’s Office said last month.
Details of the convicts, the conditions for granting clemency and the reduced sentences were not disclosed on either occasion.
Article 115 of the constitution states that the president has the authority “to grant pardons or reductions of sentence as provided by law, to persons convicted of a criminal offence who have no further right of appeal.”
“Operation Challenge”
Shafaz was arrested on June 24, 2011 with 896 grams of heroin from a rented apartment in a building owned by PPM MP Ahmed ‘Redwave’ Saleem.
Former head of the Drug Enforcement Department (DED), Superintendent Mohamed Jinah, told the press at the time that police raided Henveiru Fashan based on intelligence information gathered in the two-year long “Operation Challenge.”
Jihah labeled Shafaz a high-profile drug dealer suspected of smuggling and supplying drugs since 2006.
The traffickers had been using an authorised money exchanger called A J Emporium to transfer funds to Sri Lanka, Jinah revealed.
The drugs were believed to have been smuggled via Sri Lankan Airlines.
Jinah claimed that the network smuggled drugs worth MVR1.3 million (US$84,306) to the Maldives between February and April 2011.
Police also discovered that Shafaz had bought a shop named ‘Charm’ for MVR150,000 (US$9700) that was sold in June 2011 for MVR200,000 (US$12,970).
Moreover, Shafaz was renting three apartments in Male’ and owned a tailor shop bought for MVR200,000 (US$13,000), a shop in Kaafu Atoll Maafushi, and a Suzuki Swift car worth MVR180,000 (US$11,673), later sold for MVR170,000 (US$11,025).
As Shafaz was not in the room with the drugs at the time of the raid and his fingerprints were not found on the confiscated drugs, the Criminal Court ruled last year that there was not enough evidence to convict Shafaz on one count of the drug charges.
However, he was found guilty on the second count based on recorded phone conversations and financial transactions with a contact in Colombo, believed to be the supplier.
Three of Shafaz’s accomplices who were caught with the opiates and packing equipment – Ismail Shaheem, Mohamed Meead and Anas Anees – were meanwhile found guilty of possession and trafficking and sentenced to ten years in prison.
In a speech a few days after the drug bust, former President Mohamed Nasheed said he found it “quite shocking [that] 800 packets of heroin a night were getting sealed in the house of an honourable member of parliament.”
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A special constabulary force is to oversee security at the state owned Indhira Gandhi Memorial Hospital (IGMH).
Assistant Commissioner of Police Hussein Adam and IGMH Project Director Ahmed Ali signed the MOU at a ceremony held this morning.
The arrangement was initially announced last month, with the force’s special constabulary being brought in to resolve ongoing security issues at the public hospital.
“Everyone agrees that IGMH is in dire need of stronger security. We had some thieves walk out with our fundbox, we had keys stolen, we have had our doctors threatened…we absolutely are in need of taking stronger security measures,” IGMH’s Deputy CEO Mohamed Habeeb told Minivan News in January.
Under the MOU, police will provide security around the clock, protect clients, stop thefts and muggings in the hospital premises and will take action against any individual who threatens hospital staff.
(0)Dislikes(0)The Drug Court and Maldives Police Services have established a web portal to track drug offenders.
Through the portal, the Drug Court will be able to immediately determine if the police arrest any individuals who have been released previously on the condition they do not commit second offenses.
The court will also be able to find out if a defendant in a drug case is under police custody.
The service will expedite the court’s work, the Drug Court has said. Police held a training for Drug Court employees on the service this morning.
(0)Dislikes(0)Police have recovered MVR200,000 and MVR68,000 worth of goods stolen from a shop in the island of Eydhafushi, Baa Atoll.
Police said that two minors and an 18 year-old man were arrested in connection with the case.
According to the police, the shop was robbed in the early hours of January 31, and was reported to police the same afternoon.
Police stated that a special police investigation team in Baa Atoll had conducted an operation, recovering the money and property, and arresting the suspects.
(0)Dislikes(0)A fire in Safari Island Resort this morning was controlled by staff before the Maldives National Defense Force (MNDF) or Police could reach there.
The MNDF said that the fire incident occurred inside a water bungalow in the resort, with the room fully destroyed by the fire before it was controlled.
No injuries were reported during the incident, the MNDF said. The incident was reported at about 4:42am, and an MNDF vessel left Male’ at 5:07am.
(0)Dislikes(0)The life sentence handed down to Hussein Mohamed Sobah of Raa Atoll for drug possession was today overturned at the High Court.
In January 2013, Sobah was given the sentence after the Criminal Court found him guilty of possessing 2.5k of illegal drugs.
The High Court ruling today stated that Sobah had appealed the ruling, basing his argument on four main points. The High Court, however, had only referred to fact that police had failed to obtain a warrant – or the permission of the owner – before searching the premises of Golden Alloy Pvt Ltd [where the drugs were discovered].
The High Court said that when the judges panel presiding over the case looked into the matter, it noticed that Sobah had highlighted this issue during the Criminal Court hearings.
The court stated that the only situation in which the police can enter a house without the consent of the owner or with a court warrant was in a situation where a person’s life was at risk, requiring police to take immediate action.
The ruling said that the evidence collected inside the premises of Golden Alloy Pvt Ltd could not be considered as admissible, and that the constitution of the Maldives stated that the court should dismiss any evidence collected unlawfully.
In June 2011, police arrested Sobah with another man on suspicion that they were in possession of illegal narcotics, during a special operation conducted by the Drug Enforcement Department (DED).
At the time the then-DED Superintendent Mohamed Jinah said that the police were able to seize the drugs before they had been circulated across the country, and that this was a great success for the police and government.
The street value of these drugs was estimated by the police to be approximately MVR1.7 million (US$110,000) .
The two men were arrested near the UN building in the Galolhu district on Malé following intelligence reports. Police stated that the drugs were imported with the assistance of a cargo vessel.
“The vessel drops these things into the sea into an area determined by them,’’ the police at the time. “They went to the location on a dingy and picked it up and brought it to Malé.’’
The second man arrested with Sobah was also tried at the Criminal Court, though the court ruled there was not enough evidence to prove guilt.
The Criminal Court’s ruling on Sobah stated that the fingerprint comparison report for the drugs discovered inside the office matched with the left hand, middle finger, of Sobah.
(0)Dislikes(0)Ungoofaaru Magistrate Court in Raa Atoll has sentenced a 51-year-old man to 10 years after the court found him guilty of sexually abusing a boy multiple times.
The police have issued a statement today following the sentence, identifying the man as Moosa Mohamed Manik, 51, of Bahaaree Gulshan House in Maduvvari Island, Raa Atoll.
According to the statement, he was found guilty of sexually abusing a 14-year-old boy.
The police said that Ungoofaaru Magistrate Court sentenced him under the special provisions on perpetrators of child sex abuse.
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