The Criminal Court on Wednesday sentenced a Ghanaian man to 12 years in prison for smuggling 108 cocaine bullets into the Maldives.
The man, identified as Appiah James, has been charged with smuggling Schedule-One drugs into the Maldives.
The man, who arrived in the Maldives on June 12 on a Qatar Airways flight, was stopped by Customs officials. They scanned him due to suspicions and took him to Indira Gandhi Memorial Hospital (IGMH) for further scans.
He was arrested after a scan at IGMH confirmed that he was attempting to smuggle drugs by swallowing them.
Analysis reports showed that 108 bullets weighing 1.4 kilograms were found in his faeces on various occasions while he was in police custody.
After pleading guilty to the charge of smuggling drugs into the Maldives, Appiah James entered into a confession agreement with the state.
Under the confession agreement, he was sentenced to 12 years and six months in prison and fined MVR 100,000.
Appiah James was sentenced to 12 years, one month and 20 days in prison after deducting four months and 10 days in custody for the period of investigation.
