Hetauda, March 28

Makawanpur police have arrested 149 people, including 20 Indian nationals, for smuggling drugs in the last nine months of the current fiscal.

DSP Bamdev Gautam at District Police Office Makawanpur said the latest data showed that a large number of drug mafias from India were engaged in smuggling. DSP Gautam said the arrest of Indian as well as Nepali nationals in drug smuggling cases was alarming.

Similarly, 10 two-wheelers, one scooter, three trucks, one gas bullet, two cars, and two jeeps used for smuggling drugs were seized in the same period. Police have seized over 435.347 kg marijuana, 194 kg hashish, 15 grams opium, 940 nitrovat tablets, 65 bottles of corex and daizepam in nine months of the current fiscal.

Police have also destroyed marijuana farms in more than 412 bigahas land and opium planted in over 43 bigahas in the district, said DSP Gautam. A police investigation showed that drug smugglers were luring locals of rural areas in Dhading to cultivate marijuana and hashish in the district for a large sum of money.