Lankan authorities to crackdown on Sri Lanka-Maldives drug network

^{From right to left: Athif, Shafaz, Athik and Shaheem. PHOTO/ POLICE}

As a result of the recent breakthrough in a high profile narcotics case in Maldives, the Sri Lankan Police has commenced investigations into a large scale drug trafficking network which is operated in Sri Lanka and Maldives.

Currently plans are being made by the police departments of the two countries to coordinate with their investigations in order to thwart the ongoing narcotics trade between Sri Lanka and Maldives.

This move comes in the light of the recent arrest of four key Maldivian drug traffickers who had been using Colombo as a transit point to smuggle narcotics into Male.

The four who were arrested on June 23, by a special Maldivian narcotics team in an operation code named “Challenge”, have been identified as Hussein Athif, Ibrahim Shafaz Abdu Razzaq, Hussein Athik and Ismail Shameem who have been involved in the smuggling of drugs via Colombo to Male since 2005.

A senior official from Sri Lanka’s Police Narcotics Bureau told Haveeru that the Sri Lankan officers have been coordinating with police officials in Male and are continuing with the investigations on the recent arrests.

“Our department has been sharing information with the Maldivian authorities and we have been working together with the objective of completely destabilising the Maldives-Lanka drug network. We have been successful in arresting many of those Sri Lankans and Maldivians who have been involved in this network,” he said.

“We have currently gathered vital details related to how the Maldives-Sri Lanka drug network operates and details on those who are involved in trafficking drugs from Sri Lanka to Maldives. We suspect that amongst those involved are high profile Sri Lankan underworld gang leaders who are currently in our custody,” he said.

“We have interrogated many of these suspects and have also gathered several leads from our informants. In the recent case we hope to also question the owners and shopkeepers of the money transfer agency which is in Colombo,” he said.

The Maldivian police recently revealed that money to a Sri Lankan based dealer was sent through an authorised moneychanger A.J.E Emporium in Male, which eventually transferred the money to a Sri Lankan money transfer agent, Gallery, which is a jewellery store located in a prominent shopping complex in Colombo.

In the backdrop of this finding by the Maldivian police, the Sri Lankan authorities are currently probing if the money transfer agent, Gallery had been directly connected to the trafficking of the drugs.

On March 15, Haveeru exposed how sleuths from Sri Lanka’s Police Narcotics Bureau, had identified Maldivians residing in Sri Lanka who have been involved in an international operation concerning the trafficking and distribution of drugs such as heroin, marijuana and hashish.

In the investigations conducted by the Police Narcotics Bureau, the four Maldivians nationals who had been arrested had been identified previously. The Sri Lankan police investigations also revealed that the four Maldivians in question had been having close links to Sri Lankan drug lords who had been wanted for the distribution of large quantities of heroin and hashish.

In 2008, two Sri Lankans were arrested with heroin, worth over US$1 million, in hidden compartments in their luggage as they entered the Male International Airport. Last year the Sri Lanka’s Narcotics Bureau arrested a Maldivian woman who was carrying 9kg of heroin.

Sri Lanka receives a bulk of its drugs, especially heroin from dealers operating in India and Pakistan who use Sri Lanka as a trans-shipment hub for the trafficking of narcotics, Haveeru reports.