KATHMANDU, May 15: A 39-year-old man was held on the suspicion smuggling drugs from Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA) on April 9 when he was about to board a Hong Kong-bound Dragon Air 191 flight.
Though he didn´t admit to smuggling drugs, security officials subsequently recovered from his stomach 132 plastic coated capsules weighing 1.34 kilograms. [break]
The man was identified as Birman Tamang, a resident of Dupche-5, of Nuwakot district. Birman was taken to the Police Hospital in Maharajgunj, where it took eight hours to empty his stomach of all the drug capsules.
Body packing or internal concealment of drugs for smuggling is not a new problem in Nepal and it is a growing international problem as well, said the DSP Prabin Dhital of Narcotics Control Bureau of Nepal Police.
Birman Tamang
The police is facing a hard time in countering the practice due to the lack of necessary equipments like x-ray machines to detect narcotics (marijuana, heroin, and cocaine) hidden inside a person´s gastrointestinal canal.
DSP Dhital said that the police officials deployed in the departure zone of the airport have no choice but to await tip-offs or examine the body language or facial expressions of passengers or study the records of the suspected persons. This is totally traditional approach to crime control, Dhital argued.
"We were able to nab Tamang by profiling records of his frequent and suspicious visits to Hong Kong in the last few months," Inspector Ghanashyam Shrestha of the Bureau said.
After a lengthy surveillance, we came to a conclusion that he must be engaged in some unlawful activities as he was visiting Hong Kong several times with no specific reason, he added.
"It is very hard to label just anyone as suspect and make arrest when there is no evidence," he said, adding, "But we make arrests according to our study and assumptions."
Having X-ray machines to examine the gastrointestinal canal could help us in significantly reducing the crime, he claimed.
According to the Narcotic Control Bureau, the police made arrests of more than eight people, including Tamang, in the last five years under suspicions and with the help of techniques based on assumptions. In each case the accused tried to smuggle the drugs by swallowing a large number of drug-filled capsules.
Smuggling drugs by swallowing capsules containing narcotics is now a worldwide problem.
The practice of smuggling illicit drugs by internal bodily concealment was first reported in 1974, according to a study.
Hashish capsules
The illicit drugs may be hidden within the body by swallowing or inserting them into one´s vagina or rectum.
According to the Bureau, suspects of internal concealment are sent to nearby hospitals for health check up. In some cases, the suspects develop complications, such as drug intoxication or intestinal obstruction.
“Sometimes it leads to death, but no such incident has happened in our country till date,” DSP Dhital said.
The problem is it the Bureau that has to bear all the expenses related to treatment and medical check ups, and the government does not have any policy regarding the budget, or any other legal procedures, he added.
"If our suspicions turn out to be false, we have to pay all the expenses regarding ticketing and lodging," Inspector Shrestha said, adding, "So many security personnel don´t like to take the risks."
Hashish capsules
"In order to take the benefit of such situation, most smugglers come to the departure in the last few minutes. That puts the pressure of time constraints on the security personnel who cannot press for thorough investigation even if a person´s activities are doubtful," he said.
TIA has only few X-ray machines that are used to examine luggage. Though some stakeholders have requested the government for the installation of X-ray machines at the arrival and departure zones, the government has not been able to address the problem yet.
Without proper technology and the presence of experts, it is hard to effectively control smuggling, a police official deployed at the X-ray zone said requesting anonymity.
Despite the presence of X-ray machines, the smugglers in recent days are reported to be able to cheat even the advancement of the technology, but we have been making frequent arrests by mere assumption however, he said.
Computed modern tomography is occasionally used but very accurate diagnostic tool and Ultra sound and MR imaging do not play an important role in that field, according to the Bureau.
According to the hospital sources, the result of X-ray diagnosis depends on the purity of the drug--hashish is denser than stool, cocaine seems similar to stool, and heroin seems as a gas-and hence plain X-ray is the method of choice to detect drug-filled packets within the gastrointestinal tract of smugglers.
There is only so much that we can do until we are provided with modern technology to detect internal concealment of drugs, officials at the Bureau located at New Baneshwor said.
Those arrested for trying to smuggle drugs through internal concealment in the last five years.
1 Feb 9, 2010 Mahendra Gurung, 30, of Lamjung was arrested from TIA, who was about to board a flight to Honk Kong. He was found with 172 plastic coated contraband of 1538 gm weight.
2 Feb 9, 2010 Suvaraj Gurung, 40, of Lamjung was arrested from TIA, who was also about to board a flight to Honk Kong. He was found with 160 plastic coated contraband of 1440 gm.
3 Feb 12, 2010 Hem Bahadur Gurung, 40, of Bandipur, Tanahun District was arrested from TIA, who was about to board a flight to Bangkok. He was found with 143 plastic coated contraband of 1287 gm.
4 Feb 12, 2010 Raju Gurung, 30, of Bandipur, Tanahun District was arrested from TIA, who was about to board a flight to Bangkok. He was found with 110 plastic coated contraband of 990 gm.
5 Aug 21, 2011, Karma Gyalzeng Lama, 33, of Solukhumbu District was arrested from TIA, who was about to board a flight to Hong Kong. He was found with 150 plastic coated contraband of 1352 gm.
6 Aug 21, 2011, Ringi Sherpa, 49, of Solukhumbu District was arrested from TIA, who was about to board a flight to Hong Kong. He was found with 109 plastic coated contraband of 992 gm.
7 Aug 21, 2011, Karma Gyalzeng Lama, 33, of Solukhumbu District was arrested from TIA, who was about to board a flight to Hong Kong. He was found with 150 plastic coated contraband of 1352 gm.
8 April 9, 2013, Birman Tamang, 39, of Nuwakot District was arrested from TIA, who was about to board a flight to Hong Kong. He was found with 132 plastic coated contraband of 1340 gm.
Among the arrested some of them are released after serving jail terms and some are still in the central jail. Tamang is currently under the custody for the further investigation. According to the police he has confessed that he was used by the Indian based smugglers as a porter. “I was given the drug filled capsules at Swagat Guest House located at Balaju and I used to transport the drugs from Nepal to Hong Kong by swallowing,” he told the police. For each trip he charged Rs 10,000 to Rs 25,000, excluding the transportation, lodging and food charges, depending upon the weight of the capsules.
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