Four held in connection with £100m pork scare

Four men were arrested today as part of a cross-border investigation into a contamination scare in the Irish pork industry which cost pig producers an estimated £100m (€120m).

They were detained in Co Tyrone and Co Armagh by detectives belonging to the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI).

At the time of the alert, just before Christmas 2008, shelves across Europe had to be cleared of pork produced in the Republic after traces of dioxins were found in oil used in the making of feed to pigs and cattle.

The four men are being questioned on suspicion of fraud by false representation - moving oil without proper authorisation.

The oil was allegedly supplied to producers in the Republic, who lost an estimated £100m (€120m).

Three of the four men are from the Dungannon and Coalisland areas of east Tyrone. The fourth was detained in Blackwatertown, Co Armagh. They are aged 43, 29, 27 and 25 and it is understood some of them are related.

They are being questioned in Antrim by officers belonging to the PSNI’s crime operations department.

Members of the Garda National Bureau of Criminal Investigation in Dublin, which launched the initial investigation, are liaising with police colleagues north of the border.