Patna: Seizure of 25kg of opium in Gaya from two alleged drug smugglers hailing from Jodhpur by Bihar excise officials has sparked off worry about stocked contraband flooding various parts of the country and involvement of Maoists in the trade.

The seizure was made on Wednesday evening on the Dobhi (Gaya)-Chatra (Jharkhand) road when Jodhpur residents Dhanpat Matwa and Raju Ram were travelling by auto-rickshaw to catch a bus.

They have been booked under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act and were produced in court on Thursday. "We laid a trap following intelligence inputs that some people were planning to take a large quantity of opium through our area. The duo from Jodhpur were nabbed a few kilometres inside Bihar. They were travelling in an auto-rickshaw to catch a bus from Sherghati to New Delhi," excise assistant commissioner Vikas Kumar Sinha said.

The seized opium was packed in polythene bags and was to be carried from New Delhi to Jodhpur. "The two people procured it from Arvind in Chatra and were to deliver it to another person in Jodhpur. We grilled them, but they are hard nuts to crack. They had deleted all contact numbers on their cellphones. We are seeking call records," Sinha said.

Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) Patna zonal director T.N. Singh said it was off-season for opium as poppy crops are still growing.

"Intelligence inputs show illegal opium stock in Rajasthan and adjoining areas is exhausted, so it is being procured from Jharkhand," Singh said. "Last year, Chatra, Hazaribagh and other Jharkhand districts saw large scale opium production. Huge surplus of old stock is still there and narcotics dealers want to tap it."

NCP zonal director Singh said the "old surplus stock, ready to be pushed outside, was a matter of concern. There are also reports poppy was sown on a large scale this season too. We are gearing up to tackle it."

The possibility of Maoist link is also being probed. In their bastions, Maoists coerce and lure farmers into cultivating poppy. They also take orders from drug smugglers. The money is used to finance their activities.

An NCB man said the problem cannot be resolved till governments arrange alternative cash crops with adequate market linkage to wean away farmers from being engaged by the Left-wing extremists.