13 individuals arrested with drugs, narcotics

By A Staff Reporter,Kathmandu, Feb. 15: The Narcotics Control Bureau arrested 13 individuals, including six foreign nationals, involved in four different drug smuggling rackets from different parts of the country in less than a week.

Making the arrests public at a press conference organised at the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) office on Tuesday, the officials informed that the smugglers were held with pharmaceutical drugs, hashish and brown sugar worth over Rs. 5.1 million.

According to the bureau, they investigate thoroughly after arresting an individual with any illegal drug to identify the providers and smugglers and destroy the entire smuggling chain

The first arrest took place on February 7, in which the NCB arrested a member of a pharmaceutical drug smuggling racket leading to a total of six arrests within four days.

At first, the bureau had arrested Lakpa Sherpa, 35, of Solukhumbu, with 20,300 pieces of buprenorphine, diazepam and phenergan; 12,950 tablets of nitravet; and Rs. 405,000 in cash from his rented room in Ward No. 21 of Kathmandu Metropolitan City on February 7.

The next day, on February 8, the NCB arrested an Indian national identified as Faiz Ahmad, 38, of Madhubani district in Bihar State. Ahmad was the individual who provided the drugs to Sherpa. 

He was arrested when he came to Kathmandu from Madhubani to collect the money for the drugs he supplied to Sherpa.

After Ahmad’s arrest, the bureau reached Dhanusha district from where they arrested two more individuals.

Ayan Reja aka Rihasad, 29, and Jakir Nadaf, 45, were arrested from Dhanusha district on February 9. They both hailed from Ward No. 3 of Aurahi Rural Municipality of Dhanusha.

While Rihasad used to manage vehicles to smuggle the drugs from Janakpur to Kathmandu, Nadaf travelled to Kathmandu in one of the  vehicles managed by Rihasad and handed over the drugs to Sherpa.

On February 10, the bureau arrested two other individuals who used to buy drugs from Sherpa to distribute in different parts of Kathmandu. They have been identified as Dipak Tamang, 24, of Kavre, and Laxman Bakhati, 29, of Nuwakot. 

The pharmaceutical drugs were worth Rs. 3,798,900. In the second operation, the NCB arrested two individuals with brown sugar. 

On February 10, the bureau arrested 34-year-old Roshan Risal, a resident of Letang, Morang, with one-gram brown sugar and a digital weighing scale from a hotel in Sinamangal, Kathmandu.

Further investigation showed that Risal had bought the drug from Amit Shrestha, 35, a permanent resident of Kerabari, Morang.

Shrestha was arrested with 38-gram brown sugar from a hotel in Koteshwor. 

Officials informed that a gram of brown sugar costs Rs. 10,000 in the Kathmandu Valley.

In the third operation, four Thai nationals who were returning to Bangkok, Thailand, from the Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA) on February 11, were arrested with 23.8 kilograms of hashish.

The four Thai nationals have been identified as 48-year-old Yaowaluk Juabsri (Passport no.: AB3680626), 42-year-old Parichart Pumpruk (Passport no.: AD0281373), 25-year-old Nattapol Treechaiya (Passport no.: AD0230958), and 19-year-old Natnaree Treechaiya (Passport no.: AD0219331).

They had hidden the hashish by creating false bottoms in their suitcases. Present market value of a kilogram of hashish is said to be Rs. 35,000.

In the fourth operation, the NCB arrested two individuals involved in smuggling and sale of brown sugar. The bureau arrested Shrawan Kumar Mahara, 32, of Madhubani, Bihar on February 12.

Mahara was held with 12-gram heroin, a digital weighing scale, and Rs. 6,000 in cash from a hotel in Koteshwor, Kathmandu.

The bureau informed that further legal procedures have been initiated against the arrested individuals.