Nepal emerging as a major drug trafficking point

Nepal is fast becoming "a major transit point" for illegal drugs trade, officials said Sunday. Police said weak security at the country's only international airport was the cause, the Kathmandu Post reported.
"After India opened up a number of new flight routes, traffickers turned their eyes towards Nepal, owing to our poor security management at Tribhuvan International Airport," Nawa Raj Silwal, head of Narcotic Drugs Control Law Enforcement Unit, said. He explained that traffickers were smuggling opium and heroin produced in Afghanistan overland to Pakistan and then to Nepal by air. They would then use local couriers to smuggle the drugs to India, before shipping them overseas. Afghanistan produces more than 80 percent of the world's opium and white heroin.