Close to a dozen people have been arrested in an operation carried out by the Maldives Police Service’s ‘drug enforcement department’. 

The individuals, aged 17 to 33, were arrested in three separate operations carried out on 20th February; all of them were initially remanded by the Criminal Court.

Police arrested the 33-year-old man along with a 24-year-old male from a house in Maafannu ward of capital city Malé, with two large rubber packets filled with an illicit drug.

They arrested seven individuals from another house in Maafannu with two film canisters filled with an illicit drug, and 23 cellophane pieces holding the same drug. 

The search of a house in Galolhu had led to the arrest of two men with 73 rubber packets of an illicit drug.

The cases are under investigation and weight, worth, and nature of substance found will be revealed later, the police said.