By A Staff Reporter
Kathmandu, Sept. 8: Police have arrested two individuals with 4.035 kilograms of hashish from the Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA) on Monday. The duo was en-route to Doha via Qatar Airways.
According to the Tuesday's news bulletin of the Nepal Police Headquarters, the duo has been identified as 36-year-old Shyam Prasad Roka and 35-year-old Bir Bahadur Roka. Both are the residents of Mangala Rural Municipality in Myagdi district.

Officials at the Metropolitan Police Airport Security Office, which oversees TIA's security, informed that the hashish was found in a suitcase.
"The X-ray machine showed signs of a false bottom in the suitcase following which it was checked and the hashish was recovered. The suitcase belonged to one of the duo but a preliminary investigation showed involvement of both," said Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Rajesh Nath Bastola, chief of the Airport Security Office.

The duo was then taken into custody by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB), which has a branch at the TIA. The Kathmandu District Court has also allowed the NCB to remand the duo in five-day judicial custody.
While the NCB has started the investigation, officials informed about suspicions regarding involvement of more individuals.

"The duo was going to Qatar on working visa. We are investigating if there are other individuals working with the arrested duo," said Superintendent of Police (SP) Jeevan Shrestha.
SP Shrestha, who is also the spokesperson for the NCB, informed that drugs like hashish and cannabis are produced in Nepal due to which some try smuggling it abroad for handsome profit.

Just two weeks ago, police at the TIA had arrested 29-year-old Buddhi Raj Pathak, who was also en-route to Qatar, with 800 grams of cannabis.
Later, the NCB arrested two more associates of Pathak.
"Drug smuggling rackets have many members and arresting few doesn’t stop their illegal business. Investigating is always a challenging part but we try busting the rackets totally," said SP Shrestha.

The NCB has recently launched special operations and seized over 4 kg of cocaine and arrested several individuals, including three foreign nationals.
Nevertheless, officers argue that the recent cases of drug confiscation from the TIA doesn’t show that the airport has been prone to drug smuggling.

"There are X-ray machines and detectors. Officers also conduct manual checking and we coordinate with authorities for intelligence sharing. CCTV surveillance is also used followed by behaviour monitoring of passengers. Canines are also kept standby for effective security at the TIA," said SSP Bastola.

Only on Monday, police arrested eight other individuals with pharmaceutical drugs, cannabis, brown sugar and hashish from Kathmandu, Morang, Banke, Surkhet, and Kanchanpur.