Maldives launches its largest anti-drug operation

Related reports

• Seizure25 December 2025🇲🇻 Maldives

  Customs finds 40 kg of hashish oil in chocolate syrup bottles

  Customs officers inspecting sea freight on 25 December 2025 found more than 40 kg of hashish oil hidden in bottles labelled as chocolate syrup. Police estimated the street value at over MVR 30 million and arrested two men, aged 47 and 57, on 26 and 27 December; both were remanded for five days. Hashish oil is a cannabis concentrate and is treated as a Schedule 1 drug.

• Seizure27 July 2024🇲🇻 Maldives

  Customs finds 15 kg of cannabis in a suitcase at Velana airport

  Officers found more than 15 kg of cannabis in the luggage of a 44-year-old Malaysian man who arrived on flight EK656 on 27 July 2024. Police put the street value at MVR 12.3 million and called it the largest single cannabis seizure of the year; a controlled delivery led to a second arrest, of a 41-year-old Malaysian man.

• Seizure13 May 2024🇲🇻 Maldives

  Police seize 19 kg of drugs in the first months of 2024

  Police said 56 operations had seized about 19 kg of drugs by mid-May 2024, with a street value of MVR 104 million. They had arrested 260 Maldivians and 16 foreigners, opened 257 drug cases, sent 95 to the Prosecutor General and reported shutting five drug networks. The figures covered all drugs, not cannabis alone.

• Prosecution30 May 2026🇲🇻 Maldives

  Court closes a 'drug cafe' on Fuvahmulah for 85 days

  The Fuvahmulah City Magistrate Court ordered a drug café at Gulisthanuge closed for 85 days, the first such closure outside Malé. Police said anyone entering the property during the order would commit an offence and promised the strictest action for trespass or damage. The Criminal Court had closed drug cafés in the capital before; this order came from a magistrate court on Fuvahmulah.