Bhubaneswar: Excise sleuths on Tuesday arrested nine persons and seized 68kg ganja from Khandagiri and Baramunda in a raid conducted following a directive from the excise commissioner.

The arrested are Kandhamal natives Chitrasena Pradhan, 35, Ashok Digal, 25, Prasant Pradhan, 30, Biswanath Digal, 35, Samsing Digal, 26, Rinku Mallik, 19, Bikash Pradhan, 18. The other two are Krushna Nayak, 24, from Bhubaneswar and Santosh Behera, 30, from Ganjam.

An excise sleuth said the accused had procured the contraband from Kandhamal and smuggled it to Bhubaneswar on buses. They meant to take the contraband to other destinations from here.

"Three teams deployed at Khurda, Khandagiri and Baramunda nabbed the accused as soon as they got off the buses," said excise inspector Sarat Chandra Bhanja.

The accused had procured the contraband for Rs 1,500 and Rs 2,000 per kilogram. "They admitted to selling it for anywhere between Rs 7,000 and Rs 10,000 a kilogram. This kind of profits lure youths to the trade," he said.

The police recently had nabbed a number of peddlers from the city. The cops had seized 361kg ganja from Bhubaneswar alone in 2016.

"We have arrested several peddlers from the Baramunda bus stand. They started using high-end cars to avoid suspicion after we set up vigil on the buses," said a police officer.