{"id":620515,"date":"2026-09-10T16:00:15","date_gmt":"2026-09-10T16:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/620515\/"},"modified":"2026-09-10T16:00:15","modified_gmt":"2026-09-10T16:00:15","slug":"searches-in-ireland-targeting-horse-trafficking-network","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/620515\/","title":{"rendered":"Searches in Ireland targeting horse trafficking network"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Searches have been carried out by garda\u00ed as part of an international enforcement operation targeting a horse trafficking network.<\/p>\n<p>The network is suspected of moving animals across Europe using falsified documents and manipulated microships to hide their true identities.<\/p>\n<p>Europol, the law enforcement agency of the European Union, said that some of the horses may have entered the food chain without their true origin and history being known.<\/p>\n<p>This could result in animals not intended for human consumption being illegally sent for slaughter.<\/p>\n<p>Garda searches were conducted earlier this week in counties Galway, Kilkenny, Tipperary, Kildare, Dublin and Donegal by members of the Garda National Bureau of Criminal Investigation. (GNBCI).<\/p>\n<p>The action was assisted by Department of Agriculture and Food staff, officers from the Federal Police of Belgium and Europol, the law enforcement agency of the European Union.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Searches in Ireland as part of a European operation targeting a horse trafficking network\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/0024fc00-614.jpg\"\/><br \/>\nGarda\u00ed were assisted by Department of Agriculture staff<\/p>\n<p>The investigation, led by Belgian authorities, centres on the large-scale trade of horses whose identification details and histories were altered, enabling their movement and resale throughout Europe.<\/p>\n<p>The criminal network is suspected of forging passports and manipulating microchips to grant the animals new identities, obscuring their true background and eligibility for human consumption.<\/p>\n<p>Garda\u00ed said that 25 searches were carried out across Europe, including eight in Ireland, and evidence seized is being analysed.<\/p>\n<p>Europol said that more than 1,000 horses were checked.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Searches have been carried out by garda\u00ed as part of an international enforcement operation targeting a horse trafficking&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":620516,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,43],"class_list":["post-620515","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/620515","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=620515"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/620515\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/620516"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=620515"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=620515"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=620515"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}