Maya.env and Python modules

This should be pretty straight-forward - but it’s not.
I want to import modules from some custom directory, so I’ve modified the Maya.env and added this:

MAYA_SCRIPT_PATH = %MAYA_APP_DIR%\2017\prefs\
MAYA_MODULE_PATH = %MAYA_APP_DIR%\2017\prefs\
XBMLANGPATH = %MAYA_APP_DIR%\2017\prefs\someModule\icons\

I’ve then placed someModule inside the prefs folder, and also confirmed that the path is working by printing all paths from os.environ

import os
print os.environ['MAYA_SCRIPT_PATH']

But Maya still doesn’t find the module.
import someModule

Error: ImportError: file <maya console> line 1: No module named someModule

Why isn’t this working? The path is clearly there, according to os.environ and the module lies on this path - yet Maya does not find it. This doesn’t make sense to me.

Never mind.
My confusion came from this:
a) I forgot about PYTHONPATH
b) I thought MAYA_MODULE_PATH refered to Python modules