KATHMANDU, JULY 4The Narcotics Control Bureau of Nepal Police has rounded up 10 persons, including foreigners, from Kathmandu and other parts of the country for allegedly smuggling and peddling drugs over a period of one week. Adverse weather affect flights across the country 'MDMS revolutionises mobile phone industry in the country' A Romanian national was held with 8.7 kilograms hashish being smuggled to Switzerland from Tribhuvan International Airport.

He has been identified as Denis Cucereavii, 31, (passport number 059627335).

The NCB said he was preparing to board a Turkish Air flight bound for Zurich of Switzerland from Kathmandu via Istanbul.Yahya Abdo Mohammed, 39, (passport number 09558757) was found to have concealed the narcotic in his baggage during X-ray scanning. Similarly, the NCB arrested Yemeni national with 21 kilograms of khat (catha edulis), a stimulant plant native to Nepal.

He was taken into custody from a godowm of customs section on the premises of TIA.

Schedule (III) of the UN Convention on Psychotropic Substances, 1971 to which Nepal is a party has listed khat as a plant banned for harvesting, possessing, trading and smuggling.Khat is cultivated in some countries of the region and is commonly chewed as a stimulant.

The World Health Organisation has also classified the use of khat leaves as drug abuse and its regular users can develop a psychological dependency to the drug.In yet another anti-drug operation, the NCB arrested Bhanubhakta Linged, 45, of Jhapa in possession of 32 grams of brown sugar and nine tablets of nitravet, a prescription drug.

Likewise, Anil Singh, 20, of Bihar, India, was held with 1,470 tablets of nitravet from Birgunj, Parsa, The psychoactive substance was smuggled to Nepal from India.Similarly, Bibek Thakur, 20, Manish Yadav, 19 and Narayan Karak, 19, of Siraha were arrested in possession of 62 grams of brown sugar and a weighing scale from Traffic Chowk of the same district.

Police said two persons, including Ranjat Khan, 19, and Chade Rai, 39, of Banke with 20 grams of brown sugar from Nepalgunj.According to police, Nepal is being used by international drug trafficking rings as transit to push drugs, including cocaine, heroin and hashish, to destination countries while the growing abuse of psychoactive substances and injectable drugs has emerged as a big problem in the country.

Illegal trade and use of drugs has not only affected social and economic structures, but also contributed to the rise in crime.

Around 70 per cent of social crime in the country is related to drug and alcohol addiction, according to police statistics.A version of this article appears in the print on July 5, 2023, of The Himalayan Times. .

This article first appeared/also appeared in https://thehimalayantimes.com