Two Nepalese arrested with heroin and fake Indian currency

danga (West Bengal), May 24 (ANISashastra Seema Bal (SSB) personnel have arrested two Nepalese trying to smuggle out 350 grams of heroin and fake Indian currency worth rupees 38,000.

Ranidanga (West Bengal), May 24 : Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) personnel have arrested two Nepalese trying to smuggle out 350 grams of heroin and fake Indian currency worth rupees 38,000.

Acting on a tip off, the SSB personnel laid a trap at a border road crossing in West Bengal's Darjeeling District.

"We had specific information and laid a trap and arrested them. We have recovered from them rupees 38,000 worth fake currency, all in 100 rupee denomination, and one sealed packet containing around 350 grams of heroin," said S.L. Sarkar, the Commandant, 22 Battalion, SSB.

While fake Indian currency is usually seized on the Indo-Nepal border, being smuggled into India, instances of contra-flow are rare.

Though Indian currency is widely accepted in Nepal, retailers and money changers turn down rupees 500 denomination notes, as fake Indian currency in this denomination is in wide circulation in Nepal.

Indian intelligence agencies suspect militants backed by Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) ferry fake Indian currency through Nepal. A few Pakistani diplomats in Nepal have been held in the past for various offences.

India is considered a major conduit of opium smuggling, cultivated in the Golden Triangle that includes Myanmar, Laos and Thailand and the Golden Crescent which groups Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran.

Opium is mainly cultivated in the higher reaches of the Himalayas, but is now largely state-regulated. Illegal cultivation is mostly destroyed.

ANI