Maldivian National Arrested on Drug Charges at Cochin Int'l Airport

A Maldivian visitor to India has been arrested on drug charges.

Several Indian newspapers have run the story that a 50-year-old Maldivian woman, Aminath Rasheed, had been arrested at Cochin International Airport in connection to drug charges.

The reports also state that the woman had been held in custody for a period of three days by court order.

The Indian Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) accuses Aminath Rasheeda of attempting to smuggle 3.9 kilograms of opium from India to the Maldives on 11 December 2021. The drugs had allegedly been hidden in boxes of cargo that had been addressed to herself.

While two Maldivian expatriates in Kerala, two men named Arif and Ali, had been accused of being behind the smuggling operation, they had claimed that they had been falsely accused. They have since been set free.