“Frequent seizures mean more activity of drug rackets,” said Senior Superintendent of Police Nawaraj Silwal, deputy chief of the unit. “This is a wake-up call,” added Silwal, who worries that Nepal might just be seeing a surge in drug trafficking after years of lull. [break]
The fact that narcotic drug-related arrests and seizures more than tripled in 2011 compared to 2007 leads credence to this worry. Also, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), even the best police intervention can intercept only 10 percent of drug activity.
The January 4 arrest at Tribhuvan International Airport of a Thai drug peddler in possession of cocaine was significant for two reasons.
Firstly, it was the first ever seizure of cocaine in the country. Secondly, it indicated that international rackets might be considering Nepal as a transit for peddling cocaine produced in Latin American nations -- the source for more than 75 percent of the world´s total cocaine yield -- to destinations such as Malaysia and Thailand.
Meanwhile, this week´s white heroin seizure reaffirmed that rackets operating from Afghanistan, which accounts for around 90 percent of total opium production in the world, are exploiting Nepal as a route for transporting white heroin -- the highest quality heroin -- to the West where users can afford it.
There is very little demand for expensive drugs such as cocaine and white heroin in Nepal, where demand is mainly for pharmaceutical drugs that are cheap and easily available.
Testing Nepal as production venue
In the past, Nepal featured in the global drug peddling ring as a transit point, both during the golden triangle era from 1950 to 1970 when Burma, Vietnam, Laos and Thailand were the world´s leading producers of opium, and the golden crescent era after 1970 when Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran overtook them.
But some significant events in the recent past indicate that some rackets might be testing Nepal as a possible venue for production of opium and synthetic drugs.
“Two years ago, commercial opium production was seen in some districts in the Tarai,” said Senior Superintendent of Police Devendra Subedi, who served at NDCLEU until recently. “The UNODC told us that it was a preliminary stage, and if opium production in Afghanistan were to be significantly suppressed in the coming years, producers could consider alternative venues like Nepal,” Subedi said.
The assessment was that Nepal´s porous border with India, political instability and rise of criminal groups in the Tarai could serve as a potent mix for attracting opium producers to the nation. Commercial opium plantation in the Tarai has been significantly controlled with stringent policing in the past two years.
In August last year, police arrested Xie Jeng Fang, a Canadian national of Chinese origin, who fled Indian police in 2008 after being arrested for possessing the synthetic drug methamphetamine. Investigation by Indian police revealed that Fang was hiring fertilizer factories in India for manufacturing synthetic drugs. Nepal deported Fang to Canada on November 8 last year.
“Before being arrested in Nepal, Fang had already initiated the process to get a Nepali citizenship and was looking to buy land,” said Subedi. “Had he been arrested six months later, I am sure he would already have set up a synthetic drug manufacturing plant here,” he added.
“The biggest challenge now is coming from synthetic drugs which are produced from chemical precursors. Synthetic drugs are cheap to produce and easy to transport as medicine,” Subedi further said.
Need to upgrade interception capabilities
Given its challenges, the NDCLEU is under-equipped. Despite being an underground unit, the NDCLEU does not even have a single non-police vehicle for operation.
Established 21 years ago, the unit has just 112 men who man its eight satellite units, including at Tribhuvan International Airport, Kakadbhitta, Biratnagar, Birgunj, Bhairahawa, Pokhara, Nepalgunj and Mahendranagar.
For identifying a possible peddler, cops at the unit rely on traditional tools such as common sense and human profiling. It is surprising that despite having no technological aid, the International Narcotic Control Board rates NDCLEU as among the best drug control units in South Asia.
The unit´s biggest strength is that is has some very experienced staffers, some of whom have worked at the unit for over 15 years.
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