Probe into cattle smuggling
The scam, believed to have been smashed as a result of the probe, came to light as the Police Service of Northern Ireland and the gardaĂ attempted to trace cattle stolen from the west of Ireland.
One line of inquiry is investigating if Northern Ireland cattle destined for removal from the food chain through the UK’s Over Thirty Months scheme were switched with cows in poorer condition from the south and slaughtered in the Republic, yielding a profit of up to e200 per animal.
The alleged scam came to light after an anti-fraud squad unit from the Department of Agriculture in Belfast joined forces with the PSNI to raid two farms in Co Tyrone.
Some 100 bottles of illegal muscle-building growth, as well as cattle tags, were reported to have been discovered. Michael Steele, who heads a special investigation unit set up by the Department of Agriculture in Northern Ireland, said the find was significant. “They were anabolic steroids, cocktails of what looked to be four or five substances have been identified by the laboratory so far,” he said. Police on both sides of the border have been working with the Northern Ireland-based veterinary team as well as the special investigation unit of the Department of Agriculture in Dublin.
The investigating teams also found tags used in switching the identities of cattle set to be sold in Northern Ireland.
The agra-net.com news agency, which reports on European and international agricultural policy, said that the scam involved putting southern Irish tags on northern Irish cows, which were then smuggled into the Republic for slaughter.
The Republic does not have an over thirty months cull scheme.
Instead, all older animals are tested before they enter the food chain.
The poor quality cows from the Republic then had the Northern Irish tags allegedly inserted, were fattened on the illegal growth promoters and sold into the Over Thirty Months Scheme, leaving computerised cattle movement records on both sides of the border balanced.
