{"id":620625,"date":"2026-09-10T18:28:09","date_gmt":"2026-09-10T18:28:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/620625\/"},"modified":"2026-09-10T18:28:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-10T18:28:09","slug":"horse-trafficking-investigation-spans-several-counties-amid-fears-food-chain-compromised-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/620625\/","title":{"rendered":"Horse-trafficking investigation spans several counties amid fears food chain compromised \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Eight searches were carried out in the Republic in recent days as part of a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/world\/europe\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/world\/europe\/\">Europe<\/a>-wide investigation into the trafficking of horses.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/europol\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/europol\/\">Europol<\/a> said some of the animals may have been diverted into the food chain without their true origin and history being known, \u201cundermining\u201d the traceability systems designed to protect animal welfare and food safety.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Investigators are working to establish the final destination of the animals as investigations are ongoing and seized evidence is under analysis. More than 1,000 horses were checked.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/department-of-agriculture-food-and-the-marine\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/department-of-agriculture-food-and-the-marine\/\">Department of Agriculture<\/a> has been approached for comment on whether any of the animals may have entered the Irish food chain.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/garda-siochana\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/garda-siochana\/\">An Garda S\u00edoch\u00e1na<\/a> said investigations are ongoing into a criminal network suspected of trafficking horses across Europe, with searches taking place in six counties.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The criminal network is suspected of forging horse passports and manipulating microchips to conceal the animals\u2019 true identities and grant them new ones, obscuring their true background and eligibility for human consumption.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" data-chromatic=\"ignore\" alt=\"Across Europe, 25 searches were conducted in connection to horse trafficking, including eight in Ireland\" class=\"c-image\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/GHXMHCYDMBGQLDBNRYUDEGNWDE.jpg\"   width=\"800\" height=\"782\"\/>Across Europe, 25 searches were conducted in connection to horse trafficking, including eight in Ireland <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The force\u2019s searches, which were supported by Europol, took place on Tuesday and Wednesday. Nearly 200 officers and representatives of different authorities took part in the operation across the Republic, Belgium, France and the Netherlands.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Across Europe, 25 searches were conducted in total, including eight in Ireland. Searches were conducted in Galway, Kilkenny, Tipperary, Kildare, Dublin and Donegal by the Garda National Bureau of Criminal Investigation.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The investigation, led by Belgian authorities, centred on the alleged large-scale trade of horses whose identification details and histories were fraudulently altered, enabling their movement and resale throughout Europe.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Searches were assisted by officers from the Belgian Police and Europol as well as the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Europol also provided support in information exchange, operational coordination and analytical expertise.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">In a statement, the Garda said it \u201cremains committed to disrupting serious and organised crime and safeguarding public health and animal welfare across Ireland\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Eight searches were carried out in the Republic in recent days as part of a Europe-wide investigation into&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":620626,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[22828,8788,1346,61,60,43],"class_list":["post-620625","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-department-of-agriculture-food-and-the-marine","tag-europol","tag-garda-siochana","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/620625","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=620625"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/620625\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/620626"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=620625"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=620625"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=620625"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}