A local man has been given a 22-year jail sentence for smuggling drugs into the country via FedEx Courier services.
Sharuvan Saleem from Seenu Hithadhoo was given the sentence by the Criminal Court.
He was indicted on March 2, 2022, after a controlled delivery operation conducted on suspicion of a stored item in a box brought in via FedEx, in which 989.1 grams of mephedrone were found.
The state lawsuit states that Maldives Customs Service handed over the paper box brought to the country through the previous service in the name of G. Drup Ahmed Rashid on a Fly Dubai flight.
Customs found that the box had a suspected item hidden inside it and handed over the box to the Police. The Court documents reveal that the Police then conducted a controlled operation to determine who came to pick up the box and apprehended Mohamed Shiyahu Ali at the FedEx office while trying to retrieve the box.
When questioned, Shiyahu revealed to the Police that he had been instructed to pick up the box from FedEx and phone an individual name 'Sanaa'.
Shiyahu then gave a pickup location to 'Sanaa' and waited alongside Police officers when the suspect came by to pick up the box. Police apprehended Sharuvan from the pickup point.
Police then searched the box and found two rubber packets with 989.1 grams of mephedrone in a concealed side pocket of the box and the suspect was subsequently accused of drug trafficking.
At the preliminary hearing of his trial, Sharuwan denied the charges against him and said that he played no part in smuggling drugs into the country as accused. The defendant also claimed that he had no motive to commit the crime.
After hearing the evidence from both sides, the presiding judge decided that Sharuwan was guilty of the charges made against him.
Based on the facts of this case, there was no known organized sale of drugs, cash transactions, large amounts of cash transactions, or a large amount of cash found in his possession, and he was fined the minimum amount of fine.
Sharuwan was sentenced to 22 years in custody and fined MVR 100,000 after reducing his remand pending trial
