VZCZCXRO7014
OO RUEHCI
DE RUEHKT #1178/01 3150419
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
O 100419Z NOV 08
FM AMEMBASSY KATHMANDU
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 9381
INFO RUEHBJ/AMEMBASSY BEIJING PRIORITY 6706
RUEHLM/AMEMBASSY COLOMBO PRIORITY 6998
RUEHKA/AMEMBASSY DHAKA PRIORITY 2306
RUEHIL/AMEMBASSY ISLAMABAD PRIORITY 5044
RUEHLO/AMEMBASSY LONDON PRIORITY 6233
RUEHNE/AMEMBASSY NEW DELHI PRIORITY 2707
RUEHCI/AMCONSUL KOLKATA PRIORITY 4357
RHMFIUU/CDR USPACOM HONOLULU HI PRIORITY
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC PRIORITY
RHEFDIA/DIA WASHDC PRIORITY
RHEHNSC/NSC WASHDC PRIORITY
RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHDC PRIORITY
RUCNDT/USMISSION USUN NEW YORK PRIORITY 3353

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 04 KATHMANDU 001178 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR INL AND SCA/INS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: SNAR NP
SUBJECT: NEPAL: DRAFT 2009 INTERNATIONAL NARCOTICS CONTROL 
STRATEGY REPORT (INCSR) PART I - NARCOTICS 
 
REF: STATE 100992 
 
¶I.  Summary 
----------- 
 
¶1.  Although Nepal is neither a significant producer of nor a 
major transit route for narcotic drugs, hashish, heroin and 
domestically produced cannabis are trafficked to and through 
Nepal every year.  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.  Nepalese 
officials claim the end of the Maoist insurgency in 2006 has 
slightly improved interdiction and monitoring efforts in 
previously inaccessible parts of the country, and the new 
Maoist-led government elected in 2008 has committed to 
improve overall law enforcement efforts.  The Government of 
Nepal (GON) continues to push legislative efforts to increase 
control over the trafficking of precursor chemicals between 
India and China.  Nepal is a party to the 1988 UN Drug 
Convention. 
 
II.  Status of Country 
---------------------- 
 
¶2.  Police confirm that production of cannabis is on the rise 
in the southern areas of Nepal, and that most is destined for 
the Indian market.  Abuse of locally grown and wild cannabis 
and locally produced hashish, which are marketed in freelance 
operations, remains widespread.  Heroin from Southwest and 
Southeast Asia is smuggled into Nepal across the porous 
border with India and through Kathmandu's international 
airport.  Legal, medicinal drugs continue to be abused. 
Nepal is not a producer of chemical precursors but serves as 
a transit route for precursor traffic between India and China. 
 
¶3.  Monitoring and interdiction efforts have improved since 
the official end in 2006 of the Maoist insurgency, which had 
obstructed rule-of-law and counter narcotic efforts in many 
parts of the country.  The Maoist-led government elected in 
2008 has committed to enhance overall law enforcement efforts. 
 
III.  Country Actions Against Drugs in 2008 
------------------------------------------- 
 
¶4.  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 is 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.  The government is planning to amend the Act to 
incorporate provisions for psychotropic substances, demand 
reduction, treatment and rehabilitation. 
 
¶5.  In 2006, the Home Ministry updated the ten-year-old 
Narcotics Control National Policy.  Noting the growing 
incidence of HIV infection among narcotics-using sex workers, 
abuse of narcotics and psychotropic medicines among youth, 
and illicit trafficking by organized mafia, the new policy 
attempts to address these concerns in a more "transparent and 
enforceable" manner.  It consists of five strategies to 
control drug production, abuse and trafficking: (1) supply 
control, (2) demand reduction (treatment and rehabilitation 
and drug abuse prevention), (3) risk reduction, (4) research 
and development, and (5) collaboration and resource 
mobilization. 
 
¶6.  To ensure institutional support, the 2006 policy called 
for the creation of a Narcotics Control Bureau in the 
Ministry of Home Affairs that would include the NDCLEU and a 
special Nepal Police Task Force trained in counter narcotics. 
 As of November 2008, this Bureau has yet to be made 
 
KATHMANDU 00001178  002 OF 004 
 
 
functional.  In addition, the National Policy restructured a 
high-level Narcotics Control National Guidance and 
Coordination Committee, chaired by the Home Minister, and a 
Narcotics Control Executive Committee, chaired by the Home 
Secretary.  These entities oversee all narcotics control 
programs, law enforcement activities, and legal reforms. 
 
¶7.  Nepal enacted legislation on asset seizures in January 
2008 and continues to implement a National Drug Abuse Control 
Plan (NDACP), but other proposed efforts still await 
legislative approval.  Legislative action on mutual legal 
assistance and witness protection, developed as part of the 
NDACP, has stalled for another year.  The government has not 
submitted scheduled amendments to its Customs Act to control 
precursor chemicals.  All are under review by the Ministry of 
Law and Justice.  Legislation on criminal conspiracy has not 
yet been drafted. 
 
¶8.  In response to reports from the NDCLEU of increased 
trafficking and criminal behavior among tourists, the 
government has restricted the travel of several countries' 
nationals to Nepal.  Citizens of Nigeria, Swaziland, Ghana, 
Zimbabwe, Iraq, Afghanistan, and residents of the Palestinian 
territories are unable to obtain visas on arrival.  The Home 
Ministry and the NDCLEU reported that Nigerians in particular 
have traveled on false passports to Nepal, via South Africa 
and India, to widen their organized crime network. 
 
¶9.  Law Enforcement Efforts.  The NDCLEU has developed an 
intelligence wing, but its effectiveness remains constrained 
by an insufficient budget, limited human resources and 
inadequate technological equipment.  The NDCLEU and Nepal's 
customs and immigration services have improved coordination 
and cooperation.  Narcotics officials admit that the 
destruction of areas of illicit drugs cultivation is not as 
effective as it could be; statistical data indicate a drop in 
2007 and 2008 after an improvement in 2006 over 2005.  As of 
August 2008, 105 hectares of cannabis cultivation were 
destroyed, compared to 211 hectares in 2007, 328 hectares in 
2006, and 121 hectares in 2005.  The NDCLEU reports that as 
of August 2008, 21 hectares of opium were destroyed.  Data 
were unavailable for 2007; in 2006, 0.5 hectare (19 plants) 
of opium was destroyed.  Nepal does not have a crop 
substitution program. 
 
¶10.  Data available as of August 2008 indicate that by 
year-end, police may equal or exceed the number of arrests 
and drug seizures they made in 2007.  From January-August 
2008, police arrested 442 individuals  (387 Nepalese citizens 
and 55 foreigners) on the basis of drug trafficking charges. 
In all of 2007, police arrested 617 individuals (550 Nepalese 
citizens and 67 foreigners).  Local police made approximately 
90 percent of the arrests in 2008, while the NDCLEU accounted 
for the remaining 10 percent.  In the same time period, the 
NDCLEU and local units reportedly seized 7,478 kg of 
cannabis-approaching the amount seized in all of 2007 (8,093 
kg) and more than twice as much as the amount of cannabis 
seized in all of 2006 (3,624 kg).  The NDCLEU also seized 5 
kg of heroin from January-August 2008, about a third of the 
amount seized in each of the two previous years.  Most of the 
seizures were of "brown sugar"-low quality heroin smuggled 
from India.  Police made relatively few seizures of more 
expensive white heroin from Afghanistan.  The NDCLEU further 
reported the seizure of 1,739 kg in Nepal from January-August 
¶2008.  Most seizures of heroin and hashish in 2008 occurred 
along the Nepal-Indian border, within Kathmandu, or at 
Kathmandu's Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA) as 
passengers departed Nepal.  The NDCLEU reported the seizure 
of 12 kg of opium through August 2008.  The NDCLEU did not 
report the seizure of any opium in 2006 or 2007. 
 
¶11.  Corruption.  Nepal has no laws specifically targeting 
narcotics-related corruption by government officials, 
although provisions in both the Narcotics Control Drug Act of 
1976 and Nepal's anticorruption legislation can be employed 
to prosecute any narcotics-related corruption.  As a matter 
of government policy, Nepal neither encourages nor 
 
KATHMANDU 00001178  003 OF 004 
 
 
facilitates illicit production or distribution of narcotics, 
psychotropic drugs, or other controlled substances, nor the 
laundering of proceeds from illegal drug transactions. 
 
¶12.  Agreements and Treaties.  Nepal is party to the 1988 UN 
Drug Convention, the 1961 UN Single Convention, as amended by 
the 1972 Protocol, and the 1971 UN Convention on Psychotropic 
Substances.  Nepal has signed but has not yet ratified the UN 
Convention against Transnational Organized Crime and the UN 
Convention against Corruption. 
 
¶13.  Cultivation/Production.  Cannabis is an indigenous plant 
in Nepal, and cultivation of certain selected varieties is 
rising, particularly in the lowland region of the Terai. 
There is some small-scale cultivation of opium poppy, but 
detection is difficult since it is interspersed among licit 
crops.  Nepali drug enforcement officials reported that all 
heroin seized in Nepal originated elsewhere.  Nepal does not 
produce precursor chemicals.  Importers of dual-use precursor 
chemicals must obtain a license and submit bimonthly reports 
on usage to the Home Ministry. 
 
¶14.  According to the Home Ministry, there have been no 
seizures of precursor chemicals since 1997.  There have been 
no reports of the illicit use of licensed, imported, dual-use 
precursor chemicals.  Nepal is used as a transit route to 
move precursor chemicals between India and China.  After the 
ratification of the SAARC Convention on Narcotics Drugs and 
Psychotropic Substances, which holds countries liable for 
policing precursor chemicals, the Home Ministry asserted 
control over precursor chemicals.  The NDCLEU worked with the 
Home Ministry to develop a voluntary code of conduct for 
importers, cargo shippers, couriers, manufacturers, and the 
pharmaceutical industry.  Official implementation of the code 
is pending as of November 2008.  Additionally, a proposed 
amendment to the Narcotics Drugs Control Act regarding the 
control and regulation of precursor chemicals remains under 
review. 
 
¶15.  Drug Flow/Transit.  According to NDCLEU, evidence from 
narcotics seizures suggests that narcotics transit Nepal from 
India, Pakistan, and Afghanistan to other countries in the 
region and to China, Europe, the U.S. and Canada.  Media 
reports have claimed that most narcotics are bound for India, 
and law enforcement sources indicated that most seizures do 
occur at the India/Nepal border.  Government officials report 
that 2008 maintained improvements from 2007 in stemming drug 
flow and transit through Nepal and better border security. 
Nevertheless, the NDCLEU says customs and border controls are 
weak along Nepal's land borders with India and China, while 
the Indian border is essentially open.  Security measures to 
interdict narcotics and contraband at TIA and at Nepal's 
regional airports with direct flights to India are also 
inadequate.  The GON, along with other governments, is 
working to increase the level of security at the 
international airport.  The NDCLEU took the increase in 
arrests of Nepalese couriers in other countries as an 
indication that Nepalese were becoming more involved in the 
drug trade both as couriers and as traffickers.  This also 
suggests that Nepal may be increasingly used as a transit 
point for destinations in South and East Asia, as well as in 
Europe-particularly 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 Thailand, China and Indonesia. 
 
¶16.  Domestic Programs (Demand Reduction).  The GON has 
continued to implement its national drug demand reduction 
strategy in association with the Sri Lanka-based Colombo 
Plan, assistance from the United States, UNODC, donor 
agencies, and NGOs.  However, budgetary constraints have 
limited significant progress. 
 
IV.  U.S. Policy Initiatives and Programs 
----------------------------------------- 
 
¶17.  Policy Initiatives.  U.S. policy is to strengthen 
 
KATHMANDU 00001178  004 OF 004 
 
 
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. 
 
¶18.  Bilateral Cooperation.  The United States works with GON 
agencies to provide expertise and training in enforcement. 
Nepal exchanges drug trafficking information with regional 
neighbors and occasionally with destination countries in 
Europe in connection with international narcotics 
investigations and proceedings. 
 
¶19.  The Road Ahead.  The United States will continue 
information exchanges, training, and enforcement cooperation. 
 The United States will provide support to various parts of 
the legal establishment to combat corruption and improve rule 
of law, as well as support improvements in the Nepali customs 
service.  The United States also will encourage the GON to 
enact stalled drug legislation. 
POWELL