Police Submit Case Seeking Gang Designation Under Anti-Gang Law

Police have submitted a case to the Prosecutor General’s Office seeking to have a criminal group formally designated as a gang under the law, authorities said on Tuesday.

Speaking at a press conference at Iskandhar Koshi today, Superintendent of Police Ishaq Adam, head of the Gang Crime Enforcement Department, said police were acting in line with guidance from the Prosecutor General’s Office on the process required to classify a group as a gang.

Under the Anti-Gang Crimes and Other Dangerous Crimes Act, the first step in declaring a criminal group a gang is the submission of a case to the Attorney General for review. The Attorney General must then forward the case to the High Court, which has the authority to officially recognise a group as a gang.

Ishaq said police investigations were ongoing to identify individuals believed to be associated with organised criminal activity in Malé and across the atolls. He added that the number of such crimes has declined since the Anti-Gang law came into force.

“Before this law was enacted, we saw very dangerous organised criminal groups operating on the streets,” Ishaq said. “However, based on cases reported since August and intelligence gathered by our teams, these incidents are relatively minor and have decreased toward the end of the year compared with the beginning.”

Police did not disclose details of the group involved in the submitted case or provide a timeline for a decision by the Prosecutor General’s Office or the High Court.

Earlier in November, Dr Mohamed Muizzu also said that gang-related crimes had declined since his administration came to power in November 2023. Speaking at a ceremony marking his second anniversary in office, President Muizzu said there were currently no criminal groups in the Maldives that met the legal criteria to be designated as gangs under the new anti-gang legislation.

He said individuals previously involved in gang activity had ceased criminal behaviour and were now living normal lives, with some having moved into other professions and running businesses.