KATHMANDU, Dec 25: Police have arrested three foreign nationals in possession of 4.3 kilograms of illegal narcotic cocaine.
A team deployed from the Narcotics Control Bureau, Koteshwar, apprehended the suspects from the Sinamangal area of Kathmandu Metropolitan City-9 while monitoring foreign nationals arriving in Nepal by air. The arrests were made public on Tuesday.
According to Bureau Spokesperson DSP Jeevan Niraula, those arrested include 40-year-old Rusani Kama of Thailand, 55-year-old Xavier Matthew Thaliyacherry of India, and 21-year-old Mursaleen Hussain, also an Indian national. “Preliminary investigation shows that the three were involved in trafficking cocaine while staying in Nepal,” he said.
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Police said 550 grams of cocaine were recovered from Kama, who had arrived in Kathmandu from Laos via Thailand. Meanwhile, 3.75 kilograms of cocaine were seized from Thaliyacherry, who had traveled from Laos via Singapore, and from Hussain, who had come to Nepal to collect the drug.
The cocaine was found concealed inside capsules wrapped in 12 plastic packets by the Thai national, while the Indian national Thaliyacherry had hidden the drugs inside a suitcase, police said.
All three have been remanded by the Kathmandu District Court for further investigation under the Narcotic Drugs (Control) Act, 1976, the bureau stated.
Nepal is emerging as a transit and market for narcotic drugs in recent year. However, cocaine use remains rare among local users, largely due to its high cost.
Any person held with over 90 gram of cocaine can face a jail sentence up to 15 years to life imprisonment.
