Suspected poaching in the Parco del Ticino: police seize 46 firearms, silencers and night-vision optics

At dawn on Friday, 9 October 2026, officers from the Polizia locale of Castano Primo and Nosate, the State Police of Busto Arsizio, the judicial police attached to the Busto Arsizio public prosecutor's office and the Forestry Carabinieri of Magenta and Varzi moved in simultaneously at several locations. They were executing a search warrant issued by the Busto Arsizio public prosecutor on suspicion of the illegal taking of protected species and of «furto venatorio» (hunting theft) involving ungulates in the provinces of Milan and Varese. Seized were 46 firearms, one bladed or stabbing weapon, six silencers and more than 6,000 cartridges.

What the searches uncovered

In two homes in Busto Arsizio, officers found several silencers for firearms. At a further location in Busto Arsizio and at one in the province of Pavia, hundreds of illegally held cartridges for handguns and long guns were stored. In the homes of the three suspects, ammunition exceeded the legally permitted quantities or had not been reported to the authorities. Several properly registered weapons were not at the declared storage location and had not been secured as required.

According to the police, the tally is:

• 30 shotguns of various calibres
• 10 rifles of various calibres
• 4 semi-automatic pistols
• 2 revolvers
• 1 bladed or stabbing weapon
• 6 silencers
• 6,201 cartridges for handguns and long guns, bullets and shot
• 150 grams of gunpowder

Mobile phones, camera traps and night-vision and thermal-imaging optics were also seized. The silencers are being forensically examined to establish whether they were used in criminal offences; the same applies to the mobile phones. All weapons, ammunition and firearms permits were withdrawn from all three suspects.

One of the three is additionally accused of illegally keeping protected animals: at his property, officers found six Hermann's tortoises (Testudo hermanni), a species protected under the Washington Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, CITES. The non-human animals were confiscated and handed over to a rescue centre.

A photo released by the police also shows several red deer skulls with antlers mounted on a wall. Where they came from is the subject of the investigation.

Shots at night in a protected area

According to the mayor of Castano Primo, Roberto Colombo, and the responsible security councillor, Carlo Iannantuono, the investigation was triggered by repeated reports of shots fired at night over the past year, including within the Parco del Ticino and the nature reserve on the border of the municipalities of Castano Primo, Nosate, Lonate Pozzolo and Turbigo. Later, carcasses of ungulates were found in the border area between Castano Primo and Vanzaghello. The judicial police unit of the Polizia locale then identified the three men, who live in other municipalities and provinces but are alleged to have been active on the territory of the two municipalities.

This is not the first time Castano Primo has featured in such a case this year: in April 2026, during inquiries into suspected poaching, the forestry Carabinieri of Magenta seized a home-made pistol without a serial number from a 76-year-old resident; the man was placed under house arrest, as LegnanoNews reported. No connection with the current proceedings is known.

The three suspects are Italian nationals with no previous convictions. The proceedings are at the stage of preliminary investigation; the presumption of innocence applies.

The Parco del Ticino lies roughly 35 kilometres as the crow flies south of the Swiss border at Chiasso, along the river that gives the canton of Ticino its name.

Comment: Licensed weapons, open questions

What the police describe here is not a case of arms smuggling in a criminal milieu. Three men of good standing with weapons permits, 30 shotguns, 10 rifles: this is the equipment of recreational hunters. Whether the seized weapons, silencers and night-vision optics were used in the suspected poaching offences is for the investigation to establish. What is already clear is what the police themselves state: ammunition above the permitted quantity, hundreds of unreported cartridges, registered weapons in the wrong place and left unsecured.

Silencers and thermal-imaging optics are the classic tools of nocturnal poaching. Wild beim Wild has documented this pattern: in Mendrisio, a recreational hunter was convicted in April 2026 after shooting a wild boar sow before the start of the hunt, using a home-made silencer and a thermal-imaging device; in Amden, a convicted recreational hunter described night-time shootings as “quite common in hunting circles”. That, at the same time, the “Sparatutto” law is before the Italian Chamber of Deputies, through which the hunting lobby wants to remodel wildlife protection, does not make the case smaller but bigger.

That this case is no isolated incident is shown by a simultaneous event in Sardinia: on 8 October in Su Trambuccone near Olbia, a recreational hunter shot the three-year-old Maremma sheepdog Zeus with two rifle shots, just a few metres from the owner's house, the owner having ordered him off his property an hour earlier. The recreational hunter had replied that he pays hunting fees and does as he pleases. According to Unione Sarda, the Carabinieri seized all of the man's weapons, suspended his hunting permit and reported him to the public prosecutor; it is also being examined whether he threatened the owner with the rifle and wanted to hide the carcass in a gorge. Member of Parliament Michela Vittoria Brambilla, who is opposing the «Sparatutto» law of her own majority in the Chamber of Deputies, calls hunting an «inherently violent» practice that must be restricted and ultimately abolished.

What is remarkable is how the case came to light: not through routine checks, but because local residents reported night-time gunshots over a period of months and the municipal police followed up on the tips; the state police and Forest Carabinieri subsequently joined the searches. The case joins the incidents that Wild beim Wild documents in the section crime and hunting. 46 firearms and over 6,000 cartridges in three households, some unregistered, some left unsecured: a weapons permit is no substitute for effective oversight.

Sources: press release of the Polizia locale di Castano Primo e Nosate of 16 October 2026, as reproduced by VareseNews and Il Giorno.