Man concealing drugs in stove sentenced to 11 years in prison

A local man accused of storing over a kilogram of drugs in a cooking stove has been fined MVR 50,000 and sentenced to 11 years in prison.

The man, identified as Mohamed Faisal, was apprehended by authorities in April 2017 after he and a foreign individual were intercepted during a police operation while traveling on a motorcycle.

Upon search, police found 49 grams of drugs in a bottle which was in possession of the foreign individual. Police then searched Faisal’s residence, where the kitchen stove was discovered to contain 1.2 kilograms of drugs.

As a result, Faisal was charged with drug trafficking.

In the Criminal Court's verdict yesterday regarding the case, it stated that Faisal admitted to authorities during the search of his house that the drugs found in the stove and in the bottle belonged to him. Additionally, it was deemed that the drugs found in the apartment are his, given that it is under his care with only him having access to the residence.

The ruling also detailed that Faisal failed to prove that the drugs in question were planted by someone else. Based on the intelligence received by police and the statements made by him to officers on scene during the search of his apartment, justice Ali Nadheem said that it can be confirmed beyond reasonable doubt, that the drugs belong to Faisal.

Faisal was found guilty of drug trafficking under section 118 (a) of the Maldives Drugs Act (17/2011) and was sentenced to 11 years with a fine of MVR 50,000 which is to be paid to the government within a period of one year.

However, Faisal will only serve six years in prison as he had already been under house arrest for more than five years.