Who are the drug kingpins of Maldives?

Since my exposure to the drug addiction scenario of the Maldives in 2000, I do not think a day have passed without me asking myself this question.
Who are these people who have ruined a generation of our people, by initially distributing drugs for free and systematically initiating young and vulnerable sons and daughters of our community to this social malice which now afflicts nearly every home of our society?

I have received names, without evidence to prove so from several sources . And I am sure most Maldivians whom we meet are able to count their fingers and name a few , but are we sure that they are the real people? Do we have enough evidence to prove that these people are really the drug kingpins?
So far, people have only gossiped and whispered the names in secrecy but no one has ever come out with proof to say so and so are really the drug kingpins. I have always assumed that if any one of us had sufficient evidence to prove this, noone will be able to contain the information and delay bringing these people to task.

People play politics and people play the blame game in politics. I am shocked with what our President have said...that he is aware of the 6 drug kingpins of our country....but what I cannot fathom is any justification on why the arrest of these people have to be delayed.

If the president knows who they are beyond doubt they must be brought to justice immediately. However, some may argue that this may not be a politically correct move as arresting them now may jeorpadise them from being convicted, specially if these people are politically affiliated and have links with the opposition, arresting them now can give the opportunity for them to link it to politics thereby confusing the public response to these arrests.

However, what I find difficult to comprehend is the logic behind uttering these words to the public when he was not planning to arrest them! By giving away this information he has given these individuals time and opportunity to prepare and defend themselves and also attack those who may destabilise their business using cunning and tested criminal strategies.

What we have to realise is that the drug industry is the most powerful industry in our country today, it has a great demand and the supply is constant and continous.
Heroin is not locally grown , but it is imported to our nation through connections via the drug mafia of the world, with deliberate interactions with the drug lords of the region.
It will neither be simple, nor easy to dismantle this industry, which in most probability is connected to other social evils such as the gangs of Maldives, the booming sex industry which is slowly emerging from underground to shock us again and again. All these evils could be interlinked, all these crimes may be well organised by affluent and powerful people who have benefitted from this monetarily for years and they may now be ready to challenge us in ways beyond the comprehension of ordinary minds.

The heirarchy of drug related crime is a complex one. What we see at the top, the drug kingpins, control the inflow of drugs to the nation through their network of drug traffickers. These people are often affluent people whom many may find difficult to even link to something as horrendous as the sale of drugs. But they are dangerous people who expand their business by contacting the drug lords of the country, frequently they are the small time businessmen who also carry a facade of decency which many will find difficult to challenge.

These drug lords then sell the drugs to the drug dealers(whole salers) who subsequently sell to the drug pushers( act as retailers and may be users) or drug peddlers( similar to drug pushers) who sell it to the drug users who are the victims in this heirarchy of drug crime, being at the lowest position in this network are the easiest to get arrested and imprisoned; the scapegoats of this industry.

Definitely, it is time we reversed the order of the drug related arrests. The number of drug kingpins may be few , perhaps just a handful as stated by our president, but the drug traffickers; drug lords; drug dealers; drug pushers and drug peddlers also need to be arrested if we are to "finish this problem".

The confession of our president that he knows the 6 drug kingpins of Maldives had the power to captivate media attention and anger the public triggering a war of words between parties, as this confession was made at a time when different parties are campaining heavily for the forthcoming parliamentary elections. Unfortunately while this verbal onslaught is ongoing precious time is lost in nabbing the people who are responsible to systematically destroying a generation of Maldivians.

Can we really then afford to wait for a right time to arrest these people? Would there ever be a right time to arrest these figures? Would our politicians have the guts to rise above party politics and unite to 'finish the problem?'

Every mother , and father who have born the burden of their child being victimised at the hands of these people have a right to know who these people are. Every Maldivian wants to see these drug kingpins brought to task, immediately.

Let us hope we can trust our leaders to give us unfailing justice by arresting these 6 drug kingpins and thereby dismantling the booming drug industry which is destroying our beloved nation.

The time to arrest the drug kingpins is now. Not tomorrow or any other day when things are safe for any particular political party...!! Let us hope responsible action follows.
If our president had the audacity to utter that he knows who the 6 drugkingpins of our nation are we have to see whether he has the courage and determination to prevent another single Maldivian from falling into the claws of these people.