KOLKATA: Procurement of firearms with fake licences has turned into a major headache for state police. CID officers have recovered 205 guns from different areas of West Bengal in the past year and have reasons to believe that it is just the tip of the iceberg. There are hundreds of such arms in Bengal and procuring fake gun licences is now the safest route to getting hold of such arms and ammunition, said CID officers.A year ago, CID officers raided a telephone exchange at Tiljala and arrested the private security guards there. During the probe, police found that all the single-barrel guns used by the private security guards were procured through fake licences.The probe unearthed a similar racket in the coal mine areas of Burdwan. CID officers conducted more raids and recovered more than 100 such guns. Probe revealed that a powerful inter-state racket in illegal arms has been working for the past 10 years. "With the help of agents, they prepare fake gun licences which apparently look like original ones issued from Nagaland, Bihar or Jammu and Kashmir," said a CID investigator.Once they have these fake documents, the racketeers procure guns from licensed gun shops and then intimate the DM's office in West Bengal for a review. "There are agents active at different DM offices who bribe the employees handling relevant files to ensure a smooth review," said another CID investigator.On Friday, a CID team raided offices of two private security agencies in Durgapur and Raniganj and recovered 44 illegal arms and 30 rounds of ammunition procured through fake gun licences. Police also arrested eight persons, including Sheikh Abdul Mannan, believed to be one of the kingpins of the racket."In the past year, we have arrested 28 racketeers and seized more than 200 illegal guns," said Anuj Sharma, Special IG (CID). He admitted that criminals and even insurgent groups can collect arms this way. "We will continue our raids," he said.