New Delhi, Sept. 22 -- In a bid to prevent a wildlife smuggler of West Bengal from claiming ownership of three chimpanzees and four marmosets (long-tailed South American monkeys) recovered from him, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has, for the first time, attached the endangered animals under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

The wild animals have been kept in Alipore Zoological Garden in Kolkata. ED sources said smuggler Supradip Guha will be probed under the money laundering case.

The ED said the first-of-its-kind attachment under the PMLA "enabled" zoo authorities to retain the animals as the smuggler was trying to take them away on forged papers.

An attachment by the ED renders an asset out of bounds for its owner and...