The Narcotics Control Bureau of Nepal Police on Tuesday made public twelve people who were arrested for possession of illegal pharmaceutical drugs from different parts of Kathmandu.

The suspects, whom police believe are part of the same drug smuggling racket, were arrested in a span of two weeks.

On March 3, a team from the bureau had arrested three men—Saroj Poudel, 25, of Nuwakot, Raj Kumar Gurung, 29, of Dhading, and Imatiyal Nadif, 38, of Mahottari—from Balaju with a large amount of pharmaceutical drugs.

The trio was held with 396 ampules of buprenorphine, 244 ampules of diazepam and 405 ampules of Phenergan, said SP Birendra Bashyal, spokesperson for the bureau.

During interrogation, the three men gave away the names of a few more people involved in the drug smuggling racket.

Bashyal said Pachu Das Giri, 35, of Bara was apprehended from Balkhu. He was caught with 300 ampules of buprenorphine, 300 ampules of diazepam and 300 ampules of Phenergan.

On March 11, two more men were arrested from Gokarneshwor.

The duo—Saroj Rai of Okhaldhunga and Rajiv Tamang of Sindhupalchok—was caught with 660 ampules of buprenorphine, 591 ampules of diazepam, 615 ampules of Phenergan and 540 ampules of Nitrovat.

Based on the leads provided by Giri, Rai and Tamang, the bureau arrested two women from Kalanki on March 14, Bashyal said.

The women were identified as Maiya Devi Shrestha and Jyoti Baral of Parsa. They were found in possession of 1,000 ampules of buprenorphine, 1,000 ampules of diazepam and 1,000 ampules of Phenergan.

Bashyal said with the information provided by the suspects arrested in Kathmandu, a team deployed the bureau’s Birgunj office arrested Bishal Kumar and Bikash Kumar, both of them from Bihar, India.

They are believed to be the main suppliers of the pharmaceutical drugs confiscated from the suspects in Kathmandu.

According to the data provided by the bureau, the number of people arrested for drug possession has been rising in recent years.

In the fiscal year 2016/17, police arrested 3,607 people on drug smuggling charges—of them 159 were foreigners. In the fiscal year 2017/18, police arrested 4,754 people, including 149 foreigners. Similarly, in 2018/19, police arrested 5,558, including 201 foreign nationals.