The Spanish Guardia Civil, the oldest law enforcement agency in Spain, known as the benemérita (reputable); in co-ordination with Europol, have dismantled a crime clique in Europe, trading horse meat unfit for human consumption. The operation was carried out in co-ordination with Belgium, France, Italy, Portugal, Romania, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.
In Spain, 65 people have been arrested and charged with crimes which include animal abuse, documentation forgery, money laundering, perverting the course of justice, crimes relating to public health, and holding membership of a criminal organisation.
The discovery, in 2013, by Irish authorities who detected beefburgers containing horsemeat, led to investigations into discovering the origin of the initial contamination, where the anti-inflammatory drug phenylbutazone (often referred to as “bute,” a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) used for the short-term treatment of pain and fever in animals), was found in the meat.
Meat companies, frozen food companies and fast-food companies were affected by the investigation, which led to the identification of a Dutch citizen.
It took until the summer of 2016, for Guardia Civil’s Environmental Protection Service to initiate ‘Operation Gazel’. This investigation led to the detection of fraud, involving horse meat from Portugal and northern Spain, labelled as “not suitable for consumption”, being processed in a unnamed facility and from there being sent on to Belgium, latter country being one of the biggest horse meat exporters in the E U. This deceit involved the criminal organisation forging animal identification microchips and other documentation.
Guardia Civil was able to track down the Dutch businessman related to the Irish beefburger / horse meat case in Calpe, Alicante, in Spain, and later arrested in Belgium.
Co-ordinated by the Federal Police, the Federal Food Agency in Belgium and the Guardia Civil; bank accounts and properties were either blocked or seized, together with five luxury cars.
Results of samples, taken from slaughterhouses and facilities, concluded that the destination of the horse meat in question was mainly destined for countries outside of Spain.
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