Khunti police have seized opium worth Rs.25 lakh and recovered a loaded rifle and a motorcycle from four drug traffickers who were arrested during the operation, police said on Saturday.

Members of the busted gang told the police that they smuggled locally-grown opium to other states where the drug was sold at a higher price through cartels of peddlers. “Acting on a tip off from local sources, we conducted the operation on Friday late evening and arrested four traffickers. Opium worth Rs.25 lakh was seized from their possession,” said Khunti Superintendent of Police Shri Alok.

According to police sources, several Maoist groups including the Tritya Prastuti Committee are encouraging farmers in interiors of Jharkhand to grow opium crops for their profit.

In the interiors of Chatra, Latehar, Palamu, Bokaro, Dhanbad, Hazaribagh, Khunti and West Singhbhum districts opium cultivation continues unabated. Opium, produced from poppy, is sold at around Rs 40,000 a kg in the market, say police sources.

This illegal trade, backed by a few splinter extremist outfits in the backyard of Jharkhand, is taking a toll on the youths, say police sources. However, it continues to run as a parallel economy in the interiors, they say.

“Usually, the opium produced here is trafficked to other states. The catch will help us get our clutches on other similar gangs functioning in the area,” said Alok.

By now, police have destroyed poppy cultivation on several hundred acres of land in Khunti in a bid to check its production and trafficking. The Pathalgadi movement, which had its epicenter in Khunti, was also aimed at preventing the police from discovering poppy fields in the interiors of the district, police said. Under the movement, some villagers installed a stone plaque outside their village declaring it as liberated area and prohibited entry of the administration.