Maldives Police Service (MPS) has release the Maldivian men arrested in connection to the drug smuggling case via boat captured trespassing in Maldivian waters, except for a man named Ali Anwar Mohamed.

While 70 kilograms of drugs were seized on the boat on 5 October, the Criminal Court ordered for Anwar, 35 and native to Hithadhoo and the arrested Iranians to be kept in remand for the remainder of the trial.

Anwar, Ahmed Shakeeb, 42 and Mohamed Rishfan, 23 were leading the operation, police previously reported.

Following a tip-off from the Indian coastguard, police and the Maldives National Defence Force (MNDF) conducted a joint operation through which the Iranian-flagged foreign boat was intercepted, attempting to smuggle drugs into the country.

The boat was taken into custody 127 nautical miles from Thuraakunu island in Haa Alif atoll, along with a Maldivian vessel suspected of being in charge of “picking up the shipment”.

Four were arrested onboard “Heydhakuri-7”; two Maldivians Adam Misbah, 39 and Mohamed Inash, 22 and two Bangladeshi national, Ali Ahmed, 24 and Thuhun, 36.

Six Iranians were arrested on the Iranian boat and police later revealed that three additional individuals were arrested under suspicions of being members of a drug trafficking network.

Initially, six of the detainees and the three arrested later were slapped with 15-day remands and the two Maldivians and two Bangladeshi nationals were given 15-days and 10-days remands respectively.