Nepal’s ex-crown prince nabbed in Thailand, again

BANGKOK (AP) — Nepal’s former crown price, notorious for his flamboyant lifestyle, has been arrested for marijuana possession in Thailand for a second time in two years, police said Wednesday.

Paras Shah was taken into custody last week after officers found marijuana in his Bangkok hotel room, police Col. Chutrakul Madee said. He was released on bail Monday.

“The officers were initially called to investigate a quarrel between him and his girlfriend and then they found the marijuana,” Chutrakul said. “He will be brought to a Bangkok court for prosecution.”

Shah was in Thailand on a tourist visa.

In 2012, he was arrested for marijuana possession on the resort island of Phuket in southern Thailand. It’s unclear how that case was resolved.

Shah was the target of public criticism during his years as crown prince because of his hard-partying lifestyle and frequent brawling.

In 2010, he was arrested for firing his gun into the air after a weekend argument at a resort in Nepal. Authorities gave him a warning, but later dropped the investigation.

Nepal abolished its centuries-old monarchy in 2008. Shah was the only son of deposed King Gyanendra, who assumed the throne in 2001 after his elder brother, the late King Birendra, was killed along with his family in a massacre inside the royal palace.

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