Europol Arrests 66 People in Horsemeat Investigation

Some 65 people have been charged in connection with peddling horse meat unfit for human consumption, according to the European police agency Europol, quoted by bTV. 

Investigators looking into “unusual behavior” in horse meat markets are said to have uncovered an operation run by an organized crime syndicate in Spain in which old and neglected horses were slaughtered and sold as meat abroad.

A total of 66 individuals were investigated in the year-long sting and now Europol has confirmed that 65 people have been charged with crimes such as “animal abuse, document forgery, perverting the course of justice, crimes against public health [and] money laundering.”

Mislabelled meat products were subsequently discovered in a number of European countries including France, the UK and Sweden.

Spanish police began investigating a group which slaughtered Spanish and Portuguese horses too old or in too bad a condition for human consumption, forged their documentation and sent them to Belgium, a large horse meat exporter in the European Union.

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