Kathmandu, March 7

Police have arrested three persons, including an Indian national, with a huge amount of injectable drugs from separate places of Kathmandu.

The suspects of alleged transnational drug racket are Sunil Ghimire, 25, of Nuwakot, Bigu Rayabhar, 33, of Bara, and Mohammad Riyazuddhin, 26, of Bihar, India. DSP Teku Nanda Iwalimbu, in-charge of Metropolitan Police Circle, Janasewa, said Ghimire was nabbed from Jaisidewal leading to the arrest of two others from Tankeshwor yesterday.

Total 5,409 ampoules of diazepam, norphin and phenergan, and 1,100 gram raw hashish were confiscated from them. “They had been smuggling the prescription drugs into Kathmandu from India via Birgunj for the past seven months in an organised way,” said DSP Iwalimbu.

Organised trade of such drugs, which can only be sold against a doctor’s prescription, is on the rise despite police crackdown on dealers and users.

The consignment of drugs seized by police yesterday were transported to Kathmandu in a bus by concealing them in two buckets with grease on the top. SSP Bishwo Raj Pokharel, in-charge of Metropolitan Police Range, Kathmandu, said Riyazuddh was the main supplier of drugs while Ghimire, who operated from a rented room, sold and distributed them to retailers. They have been charged with drug crime under the laws.

Similarly, Rayabhar would receive the drugs from bus and act as a bridge between Riyazuddin and Ghimire. “The drugs seized from them is worth Rs 2.3 million in the legal market but could fetch many times more in the black market. Prohibited drugs costing around Rs 23 per ‘dose’ across the Indian border is sold for up to Rs 1,500 when brought into Kathmandu,” said SSP Pokharel.

He said that police would intensify crackdown on smuggling, possession, sale and distribution of psychoactive substances, saying they were alarmed by the rise in prescription drug abuse. According to SSP Pokharel, teenagers and college students account for the largest section of end users of pharmaceutical drugs. Injectable drugs are in high demand among drug users as they are easily available.

The number of drug related offences is higher than any other heinous crime in Nepal, according to a recent report of the Narcotics Control Bureau.