Acting on a tip-off, a team from Mal police station raided a house in Damdim, Jalpaiguri district, on Saturday, to recover a sophisticated firearm and other contraband items.

Sources said the team led by Roshan Pradeep Deshmukh, the sub-divisional police officer, and Soumyajit Mallick, the inspector-in-charge, of Mal police station cordoned off Md Rahim's house, which was locked.

The police broke into the house.

In the presence of Rashmidipta Biswas, the BDO of Mal, the police searched the house and found a .38 calibre revolver.

Boxes containing 5,752 Yaba tablets (tablets containing methamphetamine and caffeine), and 1,078 bottles of cough syrups were also found hidden on the roof of the kitchen.

“Gold ornaments, worth around ₹8 lakh, were also recovered during the raid. We suspect the house was used to stock these items for smuggling. Investigations have begun,” said a senior police officer.

Sources said Yaba tablets and cough syrups are often smuggled to Bangladesh “It seems that instead of storing these items near the India-Bangladesh border, members of a smuggling racket chose Damdim, which is relatively far from the international border, to evade seizure,” said a source.

Later, Rahim was nabbed. “We suspect he is associated with a smuggling racket. Our officers are trying to know details of his associates and how he managed to obtain the firearm,” the police officer added.