Maldives Correctional Services revealed on Friday that an inmate was caught attempting to smuggle contrabands into prison by concealing them in his sandals.
After a court hearing, the inmate attempted to smuggle two phones, 14 SIM cards, and a phone charger in the locally popular Reef sandals.
The Commissioner of Prisons Ahmed Mohamed-Fulhu tweeted a picture of the sandals on Friday afternoon. It showed that the interior of the sandal had been carved out to conceal a slim package within. The contraband was sealed with blue duct tape, and the sandal's sole was placed back to conceal the package.
According to Mohamed-Fulhu, the inmate swapped sandals with someone he had met after the hearing.
However, the items were confiscated by the Correctional Services before he was able to smuggle them into the prison.
Last month, the Maldives Correctional Services ran a large-scale operation in an effort to reduce scam calls being made by the Maafushi Prison inmates. The prisons commissioner said that “Honeypot” antenna placed in the prison facility allowed them to monitor calls being made from inside the prison and that the operation was showing significant results.
However, he noted that there were still challenges and urged that telecommunications companies and service providers change their approach to issuing SIM cards.
According to the police, 1423 reports of scam calls have been filed since 2019. The majority of these cases involve inmates making these calls from prison.
Sign In