Kathmandu, June 16:

Police officials at the Narcotic Drug Control Law Enforcement Unit (NDCLEU) said that around 200,000 capsules of smuggled prescriptive narcotic drugs are consumed every month in the Kathmandu Valley.

“There are some 10 groups engaged in smuggling and selling of narcotic drugs in the Valley but they are not strongly organised,” SSP Kuber Singh Rana at the NDCLEU, said.

“One group smuggles and sells about 20,000 capsules of smuggled narcotic drugs every year,” he said. According to him, a capsule of such a drug costs Rs 6 in India, whereas they sell it for Rs 40 in the Valley,” he said.

Arrest of one Yamuna Manandhar, 35, of Tankeshwori from Tankeshwori, Chakra Bahadur Bista, 45, of Kanchanpur and one Kedareshwor Prasad Kalwar, 46, from Kalanki, with 10,500 capsules of the smuggled narcotic drugs, helped in gaining such crucial information about the operation of organised groups in narcotic drug smuggling in Kathmandu, he said.

Sale of prescriptive narcotic drug is illegal and subject to legal punishment unless as prescribed by a certified medical professional, he said.