Moor owned by racing tycoon raided as part of investigation into alleged persecution of birds of prey

More than 50 police officers mounted a dawn raid on Glenlochy Moor shooting estate, in the northern Cairngorms near Grantown-on-Spey, detaining four gamekeepers for six hours and seizing a large number of items, including clothing, equipment and documents.

Investigators have found several legally protected and rare birds of prey - red kites and buzzards - poisoned in the area, alongside poisoned bait allegedly used to kill the birds.

Shooting rights on the estate, which lies near a nature reserve run by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, were bought by McNally in 2004 but the grouse shooting is managed by Mark Osborne, a land agent based in Oxfordshire.

Last month, three gamekeepers employed by Osborne at Snilesworth moor in North Yorkshire admitted illegally baiting cage traps with live pigeons to lure birds of prey. The head keeper was fined £1,250, a beat-keeper given a £100 fine and the third, an underkeeper, a conditional discharge. Osborne could not be reached for comment last night.

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