Driver arrested with 5.545 kg opium in Rukum West

By Our Correspondent,Rukum West, July 24: Police have arrested a man with a large quantity of opium in Rukum West. The District Police Office Rukum West confiscated five kilograms and 545 grams of opium from Chhepare in Aathbiskot Municipality-14 on Saturday night.

According to Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Navaraj Pokhrel of the District Police Office, the opium was seized from a truck with registration number Bhe 1 Ka 1780, which was heading from Gotamkot in Aathbiskot Municipality to Nepalgunj in Banke. 

DSP Pokhrel said that along with the opium, the truck driver, Madan Prakash Giri, 32, a resident of Kumakh Rural Municipality-5 in Salyan, was arrested. The police team on patrol found the opium hidden under the co-driver's seat while checking vehicles along the Bheri corridor road section.

It has been reported that the police found the opium, which was black and brown and wet, wrapped in white plastic inside a black plastic bag and again wrapped with white tape inside a yellow rice sack. 

Along with the opium, a digital weighing machine, Rs. 3,000 in cash, two mobile phones, and the truck were also confiscated, according to DSP Pokhrel. 

The police have begun further investigation by taking a remand order against Giri for 10 days from the Rukum District Court. The police consider this operation a significant success.

Previously, the police had launched an illegal opium cultivation destruction campaign. During the fiscal year 2022/23, opium grown in approximately 105 ropanis of land in various locations of the district were cleared, and in the last fiscal year 2023/24, opium plants grown in 240 ropanis of land were cleared, according to Police Inspector and Information Officer Bakhat Bahadur Shahi. 

According to him, illegal opium cultivation takes place in the higher parts of Aathbiskot Municipality, Musikot Municipality, Sanibheri Rural Municipality and Bafikot Rural Municipality in the district.