A cocktail of drugs, girls, and music. A continuous drunken atmosphere for at least 3 days and 3 nights. Trance, rave, acid, musical party – whatever you call it, the purpose is the same. Goa, a tourist city in neighboring India, is famous for such parties, although there are occasional reports of police raids on such parties in other cities there.

Along with the hippie culture from Goa, this party has also moved to Nepal. In recent years, although it was suspected that the party might be taking place, it had not come under the police radar. According to officials, the police used to receive information about such parties sometimes in Pokhara, sometimes from Chitwan to Sukute in Sindhupalchowk, but they could not arrest those involved. However, on the basis of a special tip-off, a team deployed from the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB), Koteshwor on Wednesday raided a similar party going on in Bishankhunarayan, Godavari Municipality-2, Lalitpur.

‘They named the party a musical party, and the raid was conducted on an underground musical party that started in the name of Mahamaya Mantra event and lasted for 72 hours,’ says NCB Chief Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Krishna Koirala, ‘In the operation conducted in coordination with the local police, 6 foreigners and 3 Nepalis have been arrested.’

The foreign nationals arrested are Kevin Joseph, 21, from Kerala, India, Abhiraj Kuthadi, 26, from Hyderabad, Dimitrios Katous, 21, from Greece, Sadik, 28, from Kochi, Kerala, India, Ashwin Antu, 23, and Byasnav K Saju, 28. The police have also arrested Pushparaj Pariyar, 30, from Chitwan, Mansush Neupane, 25, from Morang, and Aditya Aryal, 40, from Kathmandu.

According to the police, this party was organized by an Indian national. ‘They used to gather people through Instagram and hold parties, such parties are held in a way that only a very limited number of people know about them,’ SSP Koirala adds, ‘Our team has even recovered drugs from there.’ In the past, the ‘dark web’, a pseudo-world within the internet, was used to gather people for such parties. That is why it was difficult to find the police.

They used to keep changing the place where such events were held to avoid the police. ‘It has been more than two decades since such parties started taking place in Nepal. Earlier, it was difficult to detect them because they used the ‘dark web’,’ says former Deputy Inspector General of Police Hemant Malla Thakuri, who worked for a long time at the NCB. ‘Now, they have started organizing such parties by forming groups on social media.’ A team led by a Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) from the

bureau reached the resort where the party was taking place and seized six LSD (lysergic acid diethylamide), 22.240 grams of marijuana, 61 grams of hashish, one MDMA and 4 grams of magic mushrooms. This seizure of drugs during the raid on the trance party is very small. ‘We had received information that there might be a large quantity of drugs, but when we reached there, we did not find as much as we thought,’ said an officer of the bureau, ‘Perhaps the main dealer had not reached there by then.’

According to the officers deployed in the operation, the bureau team reached the resort where the party was taking place around 11 pm. At that time, some were eating food, while others were dancing to soft music. ‘Maybe because there is a dense village nearby, there was not that much noise when we reached,’ says an officer deployed in the operation. According to the officers, such parties were usually organized in forests, farm houses, and secluded houses. However, the party in Lalitpur was of a more modest nature than others, and the entry permit fee was also cheaper than other parties.

Suddenly, when police officers in plain clothes arrived, the youths in their 20s and 30s who were partying became alert. According to the officers, the resort owners had no idea what kind of party was going on there. ‘As soon as our team raided, 30/35 people panicked. When they checked everyone one by one, drugs were recovered,’ the officer said. ‘Magic mushrooms were recovered from the possession of a Greek citizen.’

According to the source, he had reached the resort when the police team was leaving. He had gone there after a friend living in Patan told him that there was a party. Officers say that drugs were recovered during the check after becoming suspicious. ‘They had given the name New Air Party to avoid suspicion. Most of the participants were Indian citizens,’ the officer said. ‘However, it has been found that many of the participants did not know each other.’

According to former DIG Malla, Nepali drug users do not usually use LSD and magic mushrooms. ‘Since it was recovered, it seems that this party was targeted at foreigners,’ he said, ‘both these drugs cause people to hallucinate and get excited.’ According to him, the bureau had raided such parties held on the banks of rivers and streams in various parts of the country in the past. According to officers, in the past, information was received that in addition to foreign citizens, members of Nepali business families and artists attended such parties. ‘There were also reports of such parties being held in some clubs in Thamel to invite foreign DJs,’ the bureau officer says, ‘However, since it is very secret, it is always difficult for the police to carry out operations until internal information is received.’