The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI), which conducted the raids along with the forest department, said it had busted a global poaching syndicate.

The 17-hour seizure operation began with the interception of three persons, including a Slovenian national suspected to be a supplier of illegal arms, at Delhi's Indira Gandhi International Airport yesterday.

The trio had come to India on a Turkish Airlines flight from Ljubljana, Slovenia, via Istanbul with 25 prohibited lethal weapons, a DRI official said.

The entire meat of the nilgai, an endangered species, was seized from the house of retired colonel Devendra Kumar Bishnoi in Meerut's Civil Lines.

Leopard skin, ivory, horns of swamp dear and sambar deer, antlers of antelopes and blackbucks, deer skulls, 40 rifles, 50,000 live cartridges and Rs 99 lakh in cash were also seized from the house of Devendra, whose son is a national-level shooter.

The meat had been kept in plastic packets in a freezer in a makeshift warehouse on Devendra's premises.

Police suspect Devendra's son Prashant is involved in arms smuggling and wildlife crimes.

The DRI interrogated Devendra but did not take him into custody because of poor health. Prashant had fled before the team arrived.

DRI officials told reporters the ex-serviceman couldn't produce licences for most of the weapons. The family reportedly owns a college in Bareilly and a security agency in Meerut. A sample of the meat has been sent for forensic tests.

Action will be taken against Devendra and Prashant under relevant sections of the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972, chief conservator of forests (west zone) Mukesh Kumar said. No case has, however, been registered. The sections under which the duo could be booked invite jail terms of three to seven years.

"Several teams have been constituted to arrest Prashant. There is a possibility that he is associated with poachers," Kumar said.

Prashant is a skeet shooter and had taken part in the national championship in Jaipur last November. He was part of a team that had been deployed by the Bihar government last year to cull 500 nilgai.

Police sources said the DRI had been keeping a watch on the activities of Devendra and Prashant for the past three months.

Devendra'sneighbours said they knew the former army officer for many years and "he wouldn't do anything illegal".

"But I don't know anything about his son," a resident said.

The trio intercepted at the airport yesterday had incorrectly declared the quantity and value of the arms and ammunition they were carrying to customs officials and allegedly tried to pass them off as guns imported by shooters. Rules permit professional shooters to import a limited quantity of arms and ammunition for practice.

The DRI said in a media release that firearms of various makes and models - Glocks, Berettas, Arsenals, Benelles and Blasers - were seized during the raids along with expensive cameras, thermal-imaging binoculars and over 1 lakh cartridges.