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Victorian Police have detained leading trainer Darren Weir for questioning during raids on his at Ballarat and Warrnambool stables on Wednesday morning.

Weir was one of three men arrested when detectives from the Sporting Integrity Intelligence Unit executed warrants at his properties before 6am as part of an ongoing investigation.

The properties are located in Miners Rest near Ballarat and Warrnambool.

A Victoria Police spokesperson has since confirmed four jiggers, an unregistered gun and cocaine were seized in the raids.

Detectives from the Ballarat Divisional Response Unit were also involved in this morning’s operation.

A statement from Victoria Police confirmed that three people were arrested. They are a 48-year-old Miners Rest man, a 38-year-old Yangery man and a 26-year-old Warrnambool man.

Police said the men arrested will be interviewed in relation to sporting integrity matters.

These include obtain financial advantage by deception, engaging in conduct that corrupts or would corrupt a betting outcome of event or event contingency, use of corrupt conduct information for betting purposes, and attempt to commit indictable offence namely obtain financial advantage by deception.

Weir, 48, has risen from the western districts of Victoria to become one of the most successful trainers in Australian racing history, setting record after record for the number of winners he has trained over the last 10 years.

He reached a career high when he won the 2015 Melbourne Cup with 100/1 outsider Prince Of Penzance.

Weir has extensive training facilities for more than 300 horses at Maldon, Ballarat and Warrnambool and has won the Victorian training premiership for five successive seasons.

Last season he prepared an Australian record of 491 winners with his runners earning more than $31 million prizemoney.

He currently leads this season’s national training premiership by more than 90 win s from Sydney’s Chris Waller.

The investigation remains ongoing with the assistance of Racing Victoria.