Mahottari, June 5 -- Once a quiet roadside stop along the East-West Highway, Bardibas in Mahottari has grown into a bustling town with modern amenities, thanks largely to the operation of the BP Highway, which links it directly to Kathmandu. As more people from the hills and plains settled there, building homes and businesses, Bardibas saw a rapid urban expansion.

Alongside this development, the town has also emerged as a critical junction for drug trafficking in recent days.

Bardibas is now a major transit point for smuggling marijuana from Nepal's hill districts into India and bringing controlled pharmaceutical drugs illegally from India into Kathmandu. According to the Area Police Office in Bardibas, drug traffickers have even set up...