Bhubaneswar: Excise sleuths of Cuttack on Tuesday intercepted an SUV and seized the contraband weighing around 250 grams.

Officials said the accused - hailing from Jaleswar in Balasore district - were transporting the consignment to the Haladi Padia slum, a safe heaven for drug peddling.

The accused have been identified as Sk Yasim, 42, Sk Nasimuddin, 31, Sk Noor Shahadat, 34, and Imtiaz Mallick, 32. "The gang had been under the scanner for some time and is involved in smuggling of brown sugar, ganja and opium between Odisha and Bengal. We intercepted the vehicle on the Kathajodi bridge near Khapuria. We have also seized the vehicle. The market value of the seized contaband will be more than Rs 30 lakh," said an excise official.

Around a dozen of cases related to seizure of brown sugar have been reported in the slum so far this year. The excise sleuths and police have jointly had arrested more than 30 drug peddlers from the slum last year and seized brown sugar weighing around 400 grams.

The police have managed to seize only 8.7 grams of brown sugar in Bhubaneswar between 2011 and 2015. However, the seizure was around 1kg between 2016 and 2017 in Bhubaneswar. The cops said around 70 per cent of the seizure was made from the Haladi Padia slum.

Excise officials said the root of the racket is in Balasore and nearby areas. "The banned contraband is mostly smuggled into Odisha from Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Bengal. The small-time traders in the slum procure it from Balasore and nearby areas and sell it in Bhubaneswar with hefty margins," said an excise official.

Deputy commissioner of police Anup Kumar Sahoo said the drive against brown sugar would be intensified in the city.

"Police stations have been asked to gather intelligence on this front. We will also conduct raids on betel shops near educational institutes," said Sahoo.