Cuttack, Feb. 16: Police today claimed to have got vital leads about an illegal firearms racket flourishing in the twin cities following the arrest of Jagannath Das, 33, last week.

Police commissioner R.P. Sharma said illegal arms manufacturing units were operating in a clandestine manner in Bihar and arms were also being smuggled into Odisha via Jameshedpur.

A special team has been constituted to nab the arms dealers operating from outside the state.

Chauliaganj police officials said Das, an associate of slain gangster Suleman, was involved in the illegal arms trade for the last 10 years and used to procure arms from Bhagalpur in Bihar.

He is suspected to have procured and supplied 150 to 200 firearms to criminals. So far, only four weapons have been recovered.

Chauliaganj police have traced Das's link with another arms supplier in Bihar identified as Kirti Sharma.

"We are trying our best to trace the criminals. Over 100 weapons, including a few sophisticated automatic pistols and live ammunitions, were seized in 2014," said Sharma.

Official sources said bulk of these firearms were being smuggled from Bihar and Jharkhand by various arms dealers active in the twin cities at a cost ranging from Rs 10,000 to Rs 15,000.

The arms dealers are selling these weapons to various criminal gangs through their agents at a price of Rs 40,000 to Rs 50,000.

On July 17, 2014, the police had arrested five criminals, including three arms dealers and recovered two semi-automatic pistols, a dummy revolver and four rounds of ammunition from them.

The arms dealers - Manish Narang, 32, from Cuttack, Mukhtar Shah, 33, from Jagatsinghpur and Pratap Rout, 28, from Jajpur were arrested from Mahanadi Vihar.

Narang, the kingpin of the arms racket, used to procure firearms from Bihar and sold the weapons through his associates Shah and Rout.

On February 27, 2013, the special squad had arrested another arms dealer Prakash Behera, 32, from Ranihat and recovered two mausers, two magazines and 10 rounds of bullets from his possession.

A huge cache of arms and ammunitions was also recovered and two gunrunners were nabbed by Malgodown police in August 2011. Altogether six weapons, including four automatic pistols, two single shot pistols and 101 round of live ammunition, two 9mm empty magazines were seized. Besides, various local illegal gun manufacturing units are also mushrooming in various parts of the state, which has also become another area of concern.

As the locally manufactured firearms are available at much cheaper rates compared to those smuggled from outside the state, including Bihar, a lot of small criminal groups are also extensively relying on local manufactured arms.

One such illegal firearms manufacturing unit was also busted at Shankarpur area under Choudwar police limits on April 13 last year.

Unchecked flow of small weapons, including country-made pistols, from states such as Bihar and other parts has increased in the last couple of years.

Choudwar police officials said one Jayanta Ojha, 39, was running the illegal arms unit, while another buyer identified as Kanhu Charan Sahu of Kathgada Sahi was also arrested in connection with the incident.