City shadow police arrested Maldivian nationals Shanees Maheer, aged 27, Ayman Ahamed, aged 24, and Ibrahim Fauzen Saleh, aged 29, in Thiruvananthapuram.[1][2] The men were trying to smuggle hashish oil to the Maldives from Trivandrum International Airport.[1] Police described Maheer as an international drug dealer who was on the run.[3] Officers had tailed the smugglers for three days while the trio kept shifting between luxury hotels in the city.[1]
Officers seized 17 kg of hashish oil in the operation.[1] Police found that the men had bought around 32kg dalda sachets.[1] Investigators believed the plan was to smuggle the hash oil in the sachets after emptying their contents.[1] Police put the international-market worth of the seized hashish oil at around 5 crore rupees.[1]
The tracking operation followed a tip-off from the National Drugs Control Bureau to the Kerala Anti-Narcotic Special Action Force.[1] A shadow police team led by control room ASP Suresh Kumar tracked down the trio.[1] Police said Maheer was engaged in transhipment and mid-sea transactions and that the other two had connections across the international drug market.[1] Police said more arrests would be made in the coming days.[1]
The city police have arrested another Maldivian in connection with the alleged attempt to smuggle around 17 kg of hashish oil.[4] Amhar Rasheed, 22, was arrested from a house near Pettah where he lived as a paying guest.[4] The three men arrested earlier were in judicial custody at the time of his arrest.[4] Amhar Rashydh, 22, who was studying for a degree in the city, was arrested after the three Maldivians already held said during questioning that he was involved.[2] Amhar was a member of the international racket and was instrumental in purchasing the contraband from Kerala-based sellers.[5] He had lived in the city for five years as a paying guest at Palkulangara, where the hashish oil was kept before it was handed to the trio.[5] Amhar came from Thinadhoo in the Maldives and was a friend of Aimen, listed as the first accused; the two knew each other before coming to Kerala.[5] Narcotics Cell Assistant Commissioner Sheen Tharayil said Amhar was preparing to leave Kerala for the Maldives when he was arrested.[5] Amhar was identified after police examined CCTV footage from the hotels where the other accused had stayed.[4] Their phone records also strengthened the suspicion that he had been in close contact with the gang.[4] He is suspected of having provided a large quantity of hashish oil to the trio for smuggling out of India to the Maldives.[4] A senior official said Amhar had lived in a house in Palkulangara for five years, completing a course at the Cooperative Arts and Science College in Thampanoor and then pursuing an aviation programme.[4] The police formally informed the Maldives Consulate of the arrest.[4] The trio had been planning to smuggle the drugs to the Maldives in vegetable oil cans.[2]
