Two held with 47 packets of cannabis at Velana airport and in Malé
Maldives police and customs arrested a 21-year-old Bangladeshi man at Velana International Airport with 31 packets of cannabis on 12 January 2019 and a second 21-year-old at a home in Malé with 26 more packets. The Criminal Court remanded both to 15 days in police custody.
🇲🇻 Velana International Airport and Malé, Maldives
Two foreign nationals were arrested with 47 packets of cannabis in a joint
operation by the police drug enforcement department and the Maldives Customs
Service.[1]The first suspect, a 21-year-old Bangladeshi man, was arrested on
arrival at Velana International Airport on Saturday morning after customs
officers grew suspicious of his behaviour, scanned his luggage and found 31
packets in a sealed package.[1]
Police said the second suspect, also 21, was arrested later on Saturday at a
residence in the capital Malé, where officers found 26 packets of cannabis after
searching the home with the permission of its local owner.[1]The criminal
court remanded both suspects to 15 days in police custody.[1]
Customs said 32kg of drugs were seized in 83 cases in 2018, a 232 percent
increase from the previous year.[1]Heroin and hashish oil, a liquid cannabis
extract, are the most commonly used drugs in the Maldives, and customs officers
reported finding about 3kg of cannabis in the Bangladeshi man’s luggage.[1]
Photos and video
Photo captioned "Suspected traffickers arrested with cannabis" on the article about the 47 packets seized at Velana International Airport and in Malé in January 2019.Photo details
The article says the airport arrest happened on Saturday morning and was published on Monday 14 January 2019, so 12 January 2019 is used as the incident date.
Neither the article's total of 47 packets nor the separate counts of 31 and 26 are given a weight; the weight of about 3kg published by One Online could not be confirmed because that page could not be reopened.
The suspects' names, the residence searched and the Bangladeshi man's departure city were not published.
No charges, trial or sentence were reported; only the 15-day remand in police custody is known.
The photo on the article is captioned only as suspected traffickers arrested with cannabis, and it is not established that it shows this seizure.
A 27-year-old caught carrying drugs into Maafushi prison, reported in the same article, is a separate event left out of this report.
The Criminal Court sentenced Abdulla Faseeh to 50 years and a MVR 200,000 fine on 1 October 2026 on two trafficking counts. He had been stopped at Velana airport on 7 October 2024 with 252.17 g of cannabis and 23.60 g of diamorphine taped to his legs before a domestic flight; the court imposed life on each count, calculated at 25 years, and the terms added up to 50 years.
Customs found 3,345 grams of cannabis in the luggage of two Indian nationals arriving at Gan International Airport on 22 September 2026; police then arrested the pair plus a Maldivian recipient in a controlled delivery. Three suspects were held for smuggling more than three kilogrammes of drugs.
Police said 1,141 drug operations between 1 January and 31 July 2026 seized more than 144 kg of drugs and 1,856 bottles of alcohol, and led to 1,875 arrests. They searched 23,249 people and more than 7,300 places, opened 1,533 cases and sent 634 to the Prosecutor General; 116 foreign nationals were handed to Immigration for deportation. The figures covered all drugs and did not separate cannabis.
Maldives authorities arrested 30-year-old Indian national Suraj Karwar after finding two packets that tested positive for THC hidden in tennis shoes in his luggage. The Criminal Court ordered him held for five days to allow him to seek a state defence lawyer.