An array of modi operandi employed by drug smugglers at the Tribhuvan International Airport, which the criminals are using to ferry the contraband to various European and Asian countries, has baffled security forces no end. 

“We are absolutely surprised by various methods the smugglers are resorting to,” said Deputy Inspector General of Police Jaya Bahadur Chand, chief of the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) of Nepal Police. Recent arrests by police have revealed different techniques the smugglers have been using to bring in and send out drugs. The criminals have been found to be using shampoo bottles, dolls, book covers and even human bodies to conceal drugs. 

On Friday, police arrested Tul Bahadur Tamang of Nuwakot while he was trying to send drugs concealed inside dolls to the Netherlands. According to the Metropolitan Crime Division, Teku, Tamang had hid hashish inside dolls which were to be delivered to Peter Gruber, a Dutch national. 

Last week, the NCB arrested two foreigners with 2.7 litres of liquid cocaine from Thamel. A South African woman, Mpathoni Msane, and another woman identified as Mercy, a native of Nagaland, India, were arrested with the liquid cocaine hidden in three shampoo bottles. The market value of the drugs was said to be in millions. 

But this is just the tip of the iceberg. 

Drug trafficking has become a major challenge for law enforcement officials, as the nexus between drug, crime and terrorism poses a serious challenge to the country’s security. 

“The intercontinental networks of smugglers expose us to terrorism,” said DIG Madhav Joshi, spokesperson for Nepal Police. 

Experts believe that Nepal is a re-routing destination for drugs. Unlike other traditional routes, including South-African and Gulf countries, Nepal has become a favoured stopover for drug traffickers given the lax security and poor detection mechanism at the only international airport, they say. 

Investigations so far have showed that drug mules use countries like Indonesia, Brazil, Peru, Argentina, Qatar, Dubai, Swaziland and Mozambique among others before arriving in Kathmandu. Apart from these routes, the drug mules also come from diverse background to avoid suspicion on a certain group of people. 

Namibian national Raymond Zungu Oppel in February 2014 had used his body to conceal cocaine. 

Oppel was first arrested with 45 capsules of cocaine from his bag and later 112 capsules were recovered from his stomach at the police hospital. In his bid to trick authorities, Oppel had swallowed the capsules.

In another case, Santa Bahadur Tamang of Kathmandu was arrested on February 16 after investigations revealed that he used to smuggle hashish by concealing it inside the covers of “religious books”. 

Despite arrests, police often face a major problem when it comes to investigation, as the arrestees in the most cases are only mules, while the drug racketeers operate from outside the country. These drug mules cannot reveal much as they hardly know about the entire network behind the smuggling.

We are doing our best to control the crime with the support from Interpol and narcotics bureaus of various countries,” said DIG Chand.