DHADING: Nepal Police arrested four suspected drug smugglers, including three Indian youth, and seized 40 kg hashish from their possession from along the Prithvi Highway in Dhading district.

Carrying bags filled with the contraband, three men and a woman were standing in a suspicious manner at Simle Bazaar of Bhumesthan VDC in the district when security personnel encountered them at around 9:30 pm, police said on Wednesday.

After the patrolling team, deployed from the Gajuri-based Area Police Office, approached them for inquiry, the suspects tried to run away, the District Police Office, Dhading said. But they were apprehended.

DSP Dipendra Panjiyar at the DPO said, 68 pieces of hashish and IRs 1,61,200 were found from the possession of the suspects.

They are identified as 20-year-old Akalesh Kumar Bhagat, 18-year-old Santosh Paswan, 28-year-old Madhu Giri aka Bitu – all of them from Darbhanga of the Indian state of Bihar – and 34-year-old Shambhu Rijal of Bhumesthan, Dhading. Giri reportedly has been residing in Bhairahawa, Rupandehi for some time.

The foursome were presented before the District Court today and remanded in custody for investigation, the DPO said.

DSP Panjiyar informed that the DPO has deployed patrolling teams along the highway after receiving information that smuggling of marijuana and hashish increased recently.