Police said on Tuesday that the smuggling of cocaine to Maldives have increased recently.
The Parliamentary Petition Committee held a meeting on Tuesday to discuss the petition submitted by "Hands Together", calling to change the management of National Drug Agency (NDA). They were an NGO advocating and promoting the rights and care for addicts in Maldives.
Assistant Commissioner of Police Mohamed Riyaz said the import of synthetic drugs have increased to a concerning amount in Maldives. Cocaine was one of the substances that are being found in Maldives in an increasing amount.
Riyaz said cocaine was not a substance found in Maldives often a couple of years back.
Maldives is being used as a transit point to import cocaine, he said.
Over the past year and a half, over 1,000 kilograms of drugs have been confiscated by authorities. Riyaz noted that this has not influenced the price these drugs are still being sold in the market.
It is believed that cocaine was initially imported to Maldives around 2013. It is currently used as a party drug; the increase of cocaine increases significantly on Thursday evenings right before the weekend.
The most commonly used substance in Maldives is heroin, often being sold for prices between Rf. 20-100 (USD 1.29-6.47) while even a singular gram of cocaine is being sold of Rf. 2,000 ( USD 129.45).
Police had also said in this meeting that the import of meth has also seen an increase.
Gender Minister Aishath Mohamed Didi said there was significant action to stop the import of meth around 2007. However she too agreed that more work needed to be done to stop the increase of meth as well.
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