A Slovenian national and two Delhi-based shooters were arrested on Monday, 48 hours after the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence unearthed a poaching and arms smuggling racket. “Boris Sobotic Mikolic, a Slovenian arms dealer, and two Delhi shooters – Amit Goel and another we are not naming – are in 14-day judicial remand for smuggling weapons,” DRI Additional Director Raj Kumar Digvijay told The Times of India.

Mikolic and the two others were intercepted at the Delhi airport. The Slovenian was trying to get customs clearance for 25 illegally imported weapons, though he had not declared the right quantity and the value of the arms and ammunition. Sports shooters are exempted from the rule in place in India that restricts the import of foreign firearms.

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The foreign national had allegedly supplied illegal arms to prime accused and national-level shooter Prashant Vishnoi, reported India Today. He is suspected to have been running the racket with the help of Indian sports shooters. However, DRI officials suspect a bigger and inter-country nexus of poachers and arms smugglers.

On Saturday, DRI officials had conducted raids at a retired Army officer’s house in Meerut, Uttar Pradesh, and found wildlife trophies, arms and currency notes. They had also recovered a leopard pelt, four black buck trophies, three sambar antlers, eight deer skulls (six of which have antlers), seven teeth, 117 kg of raw meat and a knife with an ivory handle from retired colonel Devendra Kumar’s house. Rs 99.98 lakh in cash and various arms and ammunition were also found.

Vishnoi is still at large, and the Forest Department has issued an alert for him. Authorities have beefed up patrolling in the forests of Muzaffarnagar, Saharanpur, Bulandshahr and other areas. “As many as 10 teams – each with five to six officials – have been set up for patrolling,” Chief Conservator of Forest (West Xone), Uttar Pradesh, Mukesh Kumar told The Times of India.