US embassy cable - 05KATHMANDU2727

UNCLAS KATHMANDU 002727 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR SA/INS, INL 
JUSTICE FOR OIA, AFMLS, NDDS 
TREASURY FOR FIN CEN 
DEA FOR OILS, OFFICE OF DIVERSION CONTROL 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: SNAR, NP 
SUBJECT: 2005-2006 INTERNATIONAL NARCOTICS CONTROL STRATEGY 
(INCSR) REPORT 
 
REF: SECSTATE 209558 
 
1. This is post's updated 2005-2006 International Narcotics 
Control Strategy Report per reftel. 
 
Begin text. 
 
Nepal 
 
I. Summary 
 
Although Nepal is neither a significant producer of, nor a 
major transit route for, narcotic drugs, small amounts of 
cannabis, hashish and heroin are trafficked to and through 
Nepal every year. An increase in the use of Nepalese 
couriers, apprehended by the police, suggests that the 
country's citizens are becoming more involved in trafficking. 
Moreover, Nepal's Narcotics Drug Control Law Enforcement Unit 
(NDCLEU) reports that more Nepalese citizens are investing in 
and taking a larger role in running trafficking operations. 
Customs and border controls remain weak, but international 
cooperation has resulted in increased narcotics-related 
indictments in Nepal and abroad. The ongoing Maoist 
insurgency has an impact on rule-of-law and interdiction 
efforts in many parts of the country. NDCLEU has enhanced 
both the country's enforcement capacity and its expertise. 
Nepal is a party to the 1988 UN Drug Convention. 
 
II. Status of Country 
 
Heroin from Southwest and Southeast Asia is smuggled into 
Nepal across the open border with India and through 
Kathmandu's international airport. The ongoing Maoist 
insurgency has an impact on rule-of-law and interdiction 
efforts in many parts of the country. Police have reconfirmed 
that production of cannabis is on the rise in the southern 
areas of the country, and that most is destined for the 
Indian market. Police have also intercepted locally produced 
hashish en route to India in quantities of up to 500 
kilograms at a time. Nepal's Maoist guerrillas are most 
likely involved in drug smuggling to finance their 
insurgency. NDCLEU reports that Maoists are known to have 
called upon farmers in certain areas to increase cannabis 
production and levy a 40 percent tax on cannabis production. 
Abuse of locally grown and wild cannabis and locally produced 
hashish, marketed in freelance operations, remains 
widespread. Licit, codeine-based medicines continue to be 
abused. Nepal is not a producer of chemical precursors. 
 
III. Country Actions Against Drugs in 2005 
 
Policy Initiatives. Nepal's basic drug law is the Narcotic 
Drugs (Control) Act, 2033 (1976). Under this law, the 
cultivation, production, preparation, manufacture, export, 
import, purchase, possession, sale, and consumption of most 
commonly abused drugs are illegal. The Narcotics Control Act, 
amended last in 1993, conforms in part to the 1961 UN Single 
Convention on Narcotic Drugs and its 1972 Protocol by 
addressing narcotics production, manufacture, sales, import, 
and export. Nepal is actively implementing a National Drug 
Abuse Control Plan (NDACP). 
 
Legislative action on mutual legal assistance and witness 
protection, developed as part of the NDACP, remained stalled 
for a fourth year due to the lack of a parliament. The 
government has not submitted scheduled amendments to its 
Customs Act to control precursor chemicals. Legislation on 
asset seizures was drafted in 1997 with United Nations Office 
of Drugs and Crime assistance and is under the review of the 
Ministry of Law and Justice. Legislation on criminal 
conspiracy has not yet been drafted. 
 
Accomplishments. The Government of Nepal (GON) continues to 
coordinate its counternarcotics efforts regionally, and 
actively cooperates in international efforts to identify and 
arrest traffickers. Cooperation between the DEA and Nepal's 
NDCLEU has been excellent and has resulted in indictments 
both in Nepal and abroad. 
 
Law Enforcement Efforts. The NDCLEU has developed an 
intelligence wing, but its effectiveness remains constrained 
by a lack of transport, communications, and surveillance 
equipment. Coordination and cooperation among NDCLEU and 
Nepal's customs and immigration services, while still 
problematic, are improving. Crop destruction efforts have 
 
been hampered by the reallocation of resources to fight the 
Maoist insurgency and the lack of security in the 
countryside. Final statistical data for 2004 and data through 
November 2005 indicate that destruction of cannabis plants 
continues to decline. In 2004, the Nepal Police arrested 45 
foreigners under drug trafficking charges. In the first ten 
months of 2005, police arrested 23 foreigners. The NDCLEU 
seized triple the amount of cannabis in 2005 (5864 kilograms 
in the first ten months) compared with 2004 (1790 kilograms). 
NDCLEU reported that it seized 64.8 kilograms of hashish and 
1.6 kilograms of heroin at Kathmandu's Tribhuvan 
International Airport (TIA) in the first ten months of 2005. 
No opium was seized in 2005. Seizures of heroin remained 
constant, and the absolute quantity (a total of approximately 
7 kilograms) remained small. Most seizures of heroin and 
hashish in 2005 occurred along the Nepal-Indian border, 
within Kathmandu, or at TIA as passengers departed Nepal. 
Seizures of illicit and licit, but illegally held, 
pharmaceuticals were similar to 2004 levels. 
 
Corruption. Nepal continues to have no laws specifically 
targeting public narcotics-related corruption by senior 
government officials, although both the Narcotics (Control) 
Drug Act of 1976 and Nepal's anticorruption legislation could 
be employed in this regard. There is no government policy to 
encourage or facilitate illicit production or distribution of 
narcotics or psychotropic drugs or other controlled 
substances, or the laundering of proceeds from illegal drug 
transactions. On the contrary, Nepal acts to suppress 
trafficking. There is also no record that senior government 
officials have engaged in, encouraged or facilitated the 
production, processing, or shipment of narcotic and 
psychotropic drugs and other controlled substances or that 
they have discouraged or otherwise hampered the investigation 
or prosecution of such acts. 
 
Agreements and Treaties. Nepal is party to the 1998 UN Drug 
Convention, the 1961 UN Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, 
as amended by the 1972 Protocol, and the 1993 South Asian 
Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) Convention on 
Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances. Nepal has 
signed, but has not yet ratified, the UN Convention against 
Transnational Organized Crime. 
 
Cultivation/Production. Cannabis is an indigenous plant in 
Nepal, and cultivation of developed varieties is rising, 
particularly in lowland areas. There is some small-scale 
cultivation of opium poppy, but detection is difficult since 
it is interspersed among licit crops. Nepali drug enforcement 
officials believe that all heroin seized in Nepal originates 
elsewhere. Nepal produces no precursor chemicals. Importers 
of dual-use precursor chemicals must obtain a license and 
submit bimonthly reports on usage to the Home Ministry. There 
have been no reports of the illicit use of licensed imported 
chemicals. 
 
Drug Flow/Transit. Narcotics seizures suggest that narcotics 
transit Nepal from India, Pakistan, Afghanistan to other 
countries in the region and to Europe, North America and 
Japan. Media reports claim that most narcotics are bound for 
India, and law enforcement sources indicate that most 
seizures occur at the India/Nepal border. Customs and border 
controls are weak along Nepal's land borders with India and 
China. The Indian border is open. Security measures to 
interdict narcotics and contraband at Kathmandu's 
international airport and at Nepal's regional airports with 
direct flights to India are inadequate. The Government of 
Nepal (GON), along with other governments, is working to 
increase the level of security at the international airport, 
and the Royal Nepal Army is detailed to assist with airport 
security. 
 
Arrests of Nepalese couriers in other countries suggest that 
Nepalese are becoming more involved in trafficking both as 
couriers and as traffickers, and that Nepal may be 
increasingly used as a transit point for destinations in 
South and East Asia, as well as Europe (Spain, the 
Netherlands and Switzerland). The NDCLEU has also identified 
the United States as a final destination for some drugs 
transiting Nepal, typically routed through Bangkok. 
 
Domestic Programs (Demand Reduction). The GON continues to 
implement its national drug demand reduction strategy in 
association with the Sri Lanka-based Colombo Plan, the United 
States, UNODC, donor agencies, and NGOs. However, resource 
 
constraints limit significant progress. 
 
IV. U.S. Policy Initiatives and Programs 
 
Policy Initiatives. U.S. policy is to strengthen Nepal's law 
enforcement capacity to combat narcotics trafficking and 
related crimes, to maintain positive bilateral cooperation, 
and to encourage Nepal to enact and implement appropriate 
laws and regulations to meet all objectives of the 1988 UN 
Drug Convention. The United States, NDCLEU, and other donors 
work together through regional drug liaison offices and 
through the Kathmandu Mini-Dublin Group of Countries Offering 
Narcotics Related Assistance. 
 
Bilateral Cooperation. The United States works with GON 
agencies to help implement Nepal's master plan for drug abuse 
control and to provide expertise and training in enforcement. 
Nepal exchanges drug trafficking information with regional 
states and occasionally with destination states in Europe in 
connection with international narcotics investigations and 
proceedings. 
 
The Road Ahead. The United States will continue information 
exchanges, training, and enforcement cooperation; will work 
with the UNODC to strengthen the NDCLEU; will provide support 
to various parts of the legal establishment to combat 
corruption and improve rule of law; and will support 
improvements in the Nepali customs service. The United States 
will encourage the GON to enact stalled drug legislation. 
 
End text. 
MILLARD