KATHMANDU:  Preliminary investigation of Nepal Police's Narcotics Control Bureau showed two foreign women, who have been arrested on charge of cocaine smuggling to and from Kathmandu, are drug mules hired by international drug smuggling rackets. Waranya Kaewpikul of Thailand (Passport No. AA7104116) was arrested in possession of 3.54 kg cocaine from the Tribhuvan International Airport on Tuesday night. With a suicase concealed in false buttons, the 32-year-old Thai woman was preparing to board the 11:30 pm flight of Malaysian Air to Kuala Lumpur on her way back to Thailand when she was apprehended at the TIA yesterday evening. The haul is worth more than Rs 61 million in international drug market, the NCB said. Kaewpikul  had arrived in Kathmandu on August 5 boarding a Nepal Airlines flight. She told police she was hired by a Nigerian man, identified as Remmy, to collect the consignment from Kathmandu. She was paid 70,000 baht for the assignment. The following day one Spanish speaking woman, who police identified as 29-year-old Bolivian woman Rossy Gueddy Toledo Vallejos (Passport No. 7755153), handed over the suitcase with cocaine. Based on the information provided by Kaewpikul, Vallejos was detained from Naxal at around 2:55 am today. According to police, Vallejos told them she was paid USD 3,000 by Claudio Negro in Bolivia to deliver the suitcase to a contact in Kathmandu. She flew to Brazil from Bolivia on July 31. She arrived in Kathmandu on August 3 via Sao Paulo of Brazil, Adis Ababa of Ethiopia and New Delhi of India. She was scheduled to fly to Dubai on August 12. READ ALSO

• Bolivian, Thai women held with 3.5 kg cocaine in Nepal