KATHMANDU, SEPTEMBER 27 The Narcotics Control Bureau, Koteshwor, arrested three persons with 10 kilograms opium from Pokhara Metropolitan City, Kaski, yesterday. They have been identified as Gaja Pun, 50, and Chakkar Bahadur Pun, 40, of Eastern Rukum and Rabi Gurung, 24, of Gorkha. Superintendent of Police Krishna Kumar Mahat, also the NCB spokesperson, said it had dispatched a special team to Kaski for anti-drug operation based on intelligence that a group of youths was peddling a huge cache of the narcotic. A digital weighing scale has also been seized from them. NCB handed over the trio to Kaski District Police Office for legal action under the Narcotic Drugs (Control) Act-1976. It is the responsibility of the concerned DPO to deal with criminal offence occurring within its jurisdiction. SP Mahat informed that they had long been involved in production, smuggling and illegal trading of opium and Eastern Rukum and Western Rukum were their bases. Opium is the dried latex obtained from opium poppy which contains morphine, an alkaloid, which is also used to produce heroin. NCB said high opium price was the main reason that led to increased cultivation of the plant. Cultivation of opium plant is rampant in parts of Tarai and the central region, mainly in Makwanpur, Rautahat, Bara and Parsa, among others, posing a grave threat to security. A section of people living in extreme poverty without any alternative livelihood sources have been attracted to opium cultivation, resulting in massive decline in the cultivation of traditional crops in rural areas, NCB said. Opium sells at more than Rs 50,000 per kg in the illegal market of Nepal, but the price depends on buyers and sellers. Narco cops have taken initiatives to destroy opium poppy before its harvest. However, it has been very tough for the law enforcement agency to prevent cultivation. The existing law has a provision of sentencing from 15 years to life imprisonment and fine ranging between Rs 500,000 and Rs 1.5 million, if anyone is found possessing more than 100 grams of opium. A version of this article appears in e-paper on September 28, 2020, of The Himalayan Times.