KATHMANDU, JUNE 12
Nepal Police has arrested a total of 4,231 people for involvement in possessing, peddling and smuggling drugs in the first nine months (mid-July to mid- April) of the running fiscal.
According to statistics released by the security agency, the number of drug traffickers arrested by the police is likely to surpass the number arrested last fiscal (2020-21) after completion of this fiscal.
As many as 4,632 persons were arrested in connection with drug crimes in the last fiscal. Nepal Police said it took 4,231 persons into custody for possessing and smuggling drugs and filed a total of 2,827 cases at the concerned district courts against them. The number of cases filed in the courts are higher than that of the arrestees as more than one person was found to have been involved in several incidents of drug seizure.
The report stated that police had seized 138,885 ampoules of buprenorphine, diazepam and other injectable drugs, 8,019 bottles of corex, 0.7 kilograms of heroin, 427.15 kilograms of hashish, 6.878 kilograms of cannabis, 26 kilograms of opium, 3.14 kilograms of cocaine and 174,547 tablets of various psychoactive substances.
"Besides crackdown on the supply side, the security agency has been conducting awareness programmes among people about health, economic and social consequences of drug abuse that continue to plague the nation," the report stated.
Nepal Police, in association with various organisations, local levels and civil society, is also conducting awareness programmes against drug abuse across the country. Illegal trade and use of drugs have not only affected social and economic structures, but also contributed to rise in crime. Around 70 per cent of social crimes in the country are related to drug and alcohol addiction, according to police statistics.
Nepal Police Headquarters has been implementing a 'No Drugs and Alcohol Control' special campaign in line with the Home Administration Reforms Action Plan, 2017. It aims to step up crackdown on production, smuggling, peddling, storage, possession and abuse of illicit drugs.
The Narcotics Control Bureau and other police units have also been engaged in dismantling national and transnational drug rackets.
Nepal is being used by international drug trafficking rings as a transit to push hard drugs, including cocaine and heroin, to the destination countries while the growing abuse of psychoactive substances and injectable drugs has emerged as a big problem in the country.
A version of this article appears in the print on June 13, 2022, of The Himalayan Times.
