Horsemeat: The Insider Spotlight

disturbing. Two weeks ago, Spotlight made

contact with a man who said he was part of a long-running criminal

conspiracy, a fraud which exploits weaknesses in the system for

exporting horsemeat into the human food chain. A fraud which has a

direct bearing on the European food crisis.

Why is it important that what you are involved with get out? Why?

Number one would be the health and safety of people, 4G would be day

cruelty that goes on behind closed doors. The man we interviewed said

he was at the heart of that criminal operation. By speaking to

us, he says he is putting himself in danger. Tonight on Spotlight,

his inside story of the criminal Over the past two months, the

scandal of untraceable horse meat in processed food has plunged the

European food industry into crisis. The Prime Minister has issued a

stern warning to any 100 and passing of horsemeat of -- passing

of horsemeat as beef. Thousands of samples are to be tested for

horsemeat. Three men were arrested earlier this evening on suspicion

of fraud as part of the investigation into horsemeat being

labelled as beef. Politicians in the UK and Republic

of Ireland attempted to contain the problem by pointing out meat

products are fundamentally safe and that the system for tracing horses

and horsemeat is working. This, for the moment, is a labelling problem,

an issue of fraud. There is a full investigation going on as to how

the imported additives got into the system and where they would come

from. But tonight, we can reveal that the system for slaughtering

horses and processing their meat has been corrupted and exploited by

a small group of individuals based in Northern Ireland and the

Republic. Several days ago, Spotlight made contact with a man

who claims to have been an insider in that conspiracy. We interviewed

him on two separate occasions. He cannot be identified, because he

fears for his safety, but during those interviews, he gave a

detailed account of how the fraud work. He started by telling us how,

over the last four years, large numbers of Irish horses were

purchased cheaply across the country by a small group of people.

Where did the horses come from? Anywhere, everywhere, moreover we

could get them. Good, bad, indifferent, it did not matter.

you buy them at markets? Some were born there, somewhat out and around

the country, a lot of them born -- bought a round the country.

Whereabouts? Around farms and places, people did not want them,

or could not afford them. After the economic crisis, there

was no shortage of people, north and south of the border, willing to

sell horses they could no longer afford to keep.

Did anyone ever ask you why you were so interested in buying up

their horse? People knew. They did not know they were going to a

factory, but thought they were going for dog food. They never

thought they were going into human food? No. Definitely not.

Most of the horses bought by the gang across Ireland were on the

face of it of little value. Horses which have proper documentation can

demand a higher price, often several hundred pounds, when sent

to slaughter, but need a document called a horse passport. It shows

the provenance of the horse and, crucially, its medication history.

And horses born since 2009 also need a microchip implanted under

their skin and the cheque number is recorded in the passport. This they

it says that, in theory, this system should allow any horse to be

properly identified. How the system works is that, since 2009, it is a

requirement when an owner applies for a passport that a horse has a

microchip present. That is always inserted in the left-hand side of

the neck, so it can be read in that position with a particular scanning

device. And so, since 2009, every horse that has a passport issued

for them would also have a matching microchip and microchip number that

can be read with this device and it is also to be found on the document

linked with that animal, so it should be a unique way of

identifying who this horse is and provide information about the

animal. That is the theory, but in practice,

the scam was simpler. They should always be a vet who inserts a

microchip in the horse and fills out the passport. The gang simply

did it themselves, inserting bogus microchips into the animal and

forging horse passports to match them. The end I eight -- the

insider says it happened on an industrial scale. In the trade,

horse passports are known as books. They had a bag full of new books.

But some horses needed to have a microchip? What happened in that

case? They were inserted. How could that happen? Like an injection.

you ever cook chips into horses? Yes. But that has a number, how

does that work? You get the scanner and read it. And write the new

number into the passport? Yes. This meant that horses bought at

markets, or from farmers, for less than �50 were now worth several

hundred pounds when sold to abattoirs licensed to slaughter for

export abroad for human consumption. It was a licence to print money.

All we needed was horses, lots of them.

If there were about horses, you would get 16 on it, big and small,

you could even put 25, 26 horses. pack in as much as you can? Yes.

How much would you have paid for a fool lorry in total? Not much more

than �1,000 for them. The scam was lucrative, a lorry-load of horses,

costing no more than once �1,000 to buy, but fetching far more when

sold to an abattoir to be slaughtered for human consumption.

How much money we are you taking home? The average cheque would run

into about �5,000, something like that. And how much would be given

to you? You get �1,000. That is great money. Yes.

The money may have been good, but as time went on, the insider began

to see the cost of the criminal operation. Cruelty on a massive

scale. The gang were gathering large groups of horses together

before taking into England. But there were so many are waiting

transport, for long periods, horses would get no food, shelter or water.

He told us about that in his first interview.

They would be starving for weeks on end and in the bad weather.

Eventually, we thought about going around then, gathering their mark,

but there would be none of them there. -- gathering them up, but

there would be none of them and we could not get to them. Tell me

about the horses that did not make it to the journey, what happened to

them? There were horses that did not make the journey, but others

did not make the journey... The insider pointed as to a

location where he said horses had died. These photographs taken

ashore horse bones have submerged in the ground. One of the most

disturbing revelations from the insider is that horses were

regularly administered them a beautiful, known as bute, and be

The drugs would either be given in a horse's food or sometimes by

injection. Tell me about the horses that were

being transported, because they were cheap horses, they must not

have been in the best of shape. Some were not, but to stimulate

them and get them up on your feet again, you would give them seven

cortisone and bute. Bute is banned for human consumption and an EU law.

However, the current scientific consensus is that, even if

horsemeat containing bute has passed into the food chain, the

risk to humans is low. Bute has been around for a long

time, widely roost, but some research showed a small number of

cases, people, humans, suffered from a particularly serious ailment

of the bone marrow. -- widely used. Act out of anaemia, average your

body switches off the production of red blood cells and it can be fatal

in some cases. But it was a very small number of cases that that

happened. Our insiders says that, in some

cases, horses were given bute just hours before being slaughtered.

a horse had a heart beat and could walk on its four Lex, you would

stand up on that Lawrie until he got to England. What would make

that horse stand better and manage that trip? Bute. It was 16-18 hours.

There is no direct evidence that even this could harm human health,

but it does raise other concerns. That would be extremely bad news,

because the drug administered to the animal, immediately before

slaughter, means there will be high concentrations of the drug present

in the horse and those residues will make their way into the food

supply chain. For this professor, one of the biggest issues is that

we simply do not know what we are eating. This probably, from an

international standing, is probably one of the biggest issues we have

seen in relation to the Trust of that the supply chain we have

witnessed since B S E. What the insider told Spotlight over the

last two weeks has cast serious doubt on the security of the horse

passport system, a system set up to protect consumers when it comes to

how horsemeat enters the human food chain. What he says would suggest

that horse passports are wide open Janice is chairperson of racehorse

sanctuary and she says her organisation has been concerned

about the disposal of low-value Irish horses for several years.

Most of them were being shipped across the Irish Sea to be

slaughtered and are then most of that meat was supposed to be going

to the Continent. However, we knew that the people we were working

with, the sheer numbers who were going through these yards, and the

numbers of export and import figures were not matching up. Where

were these horses going? believes the movement of so many

horses was only possible because the horse passport system has been

abused on a massive scale. A lot of the people who it is aimed at

policing, basically, are laughing up their sleeve at it because they

know nobody in authority is really bothering themselves to check

passports. When we ask people if we can see a passport if they will

rummage in their van and they will say, what colour is it? We will

tell them and they have every colour and type of bogus passports

which they will pull out and start to complete in front of you. It is

a total farce. And also at the ports, why our passports not being

checked? People will get a lorry which pulls up and they will handle

-- hand over a number of passports and the tailgate will be lowered so

that they can do a head count of how many horses in the lorry but no

passport is matched up to an individual horse on that lorry. You

could have any horses going through with any passport and the -- the

passports may look legitimate but the horses are not. Our insider

said checks at the ports never posed a problem for him.

Were you ever stopped? Never. anyone ever poor you win and say

why are you driving back big load of horses? Never. I wanted to ask

the minister at the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development,

Michelle O'Neill, about how lax the system appeared to be. She was not

available but the department did put forward the chief veterinary

officer. The control at the port was a head count first as the horse

passport. Horses were not unloaded. There is no place to unload them.

And there is no -- it is not safe to unload them. We did the best we

could do. It just wasn't good enough. I'm sorry, you say it is

just not good enough. What I am saying is I am looking at all of

the ways that we might harden the system to the risk of abuse. It is

too late. It is never too late to harden the system. The horses are

gone, they may have entered the food chain. And we do not know

where they have gone because they it went to England. Others were

aware of the situation at the ports. We began to notice that there were

certain individuals using reports on a regular basis, sometimes three

or four times a week, taking horses out of this country and we could

not understand why. It did not make any sense. Why would people be

spending money moving animals which had no value? The US PCA decided to

mount a surveillance operation. It began with this man, Lawrence

McAllister, a horse trader from County Antrim who was making

repeated trips to the north of England with trailer loads of Irish

horses. When he was arrested after driving off the ferry in Scotland,

the team had their first major breakthrough. He decided to

transport animals which were unfit for Transport. The animals were

suffering. They were lame and could not stand on the lorry. Bay and

powder but Laurie. During that process they discovered 40 forged

Irish horse passports and a box of microchips -- they impounded for

the lorry. Our insider says McAllister was part of a wider

criminal enterprise. In fact, he was one of the ringleaders in began

our insider worked for, delivering horses to England which were not

fit for human consumption. He was one of the top men. What do you

mean? He would have been in the big gang, so he would. Was he taking

horses from Dublin or Belfast? far as I knew, he would be taking

them out through the north, through Belfast. Lawrence McAllister was

charged with animal cruelty and told not to work with horses. He

did not listen. He was later stopped as a passenger in this

lorry in Scotland carrying two horses. The vehicle was driven by

this man, Kieran Murphy from South Armagh. But Murphy and McAllister

were not just transporting horses. Hidden in the back of the lorry was

a large amount of cannabis. Murphy and McAllister are now in prison in

Scotland. McAllister was also convicted of animal cruelty rising

from the charges on his previous trip to Scotland. Lawrence

McAllister was caught in Scotland with drugs. Were you surprised?

He had to do something with all the money so I suppose that is one way.

The conviction of the two men in Scotland showed how the conspiracy

was now embracing other forms of criminality but it also helped

solve a riddle for the US PCA investigators. Why were so many

low-value horses being moved to England? The answer lay in the

answers in the lorry, fake passports and a bag of microchips.

Now the investigators were able to join the dots and workout that the

gang were passing and documented animals off as animals which were

fit for human consumption. The big concern was where those animals

were heading. This is the Red Lion abattoir in

Nantwich, Cheshire. The US PCA said it became a place of interest to

them and their investigation about where the Irish horses were being

taken to for slaughter. It would also appear to be well known to our

insider. I am going to show you a photograph.

Can you tell me what this photograph is? It is the factory.

We drove in. What factory? The Red Lion. We drove in around the back

and at the back there is another intake door. We went in through the

back in take tours. Is up a factory you delivered horses on forged

passports? Yes. That should never have been slaughtered for the human

food chain? Yes. Our insider says he delivered horses to Red Lion

abattoir on multiple occasions, horses which had forged

documentation and some of which had been recently administered

phenylbutazone or bute. Red Lion confirmed they purchased horses

from Ireland but insist this is done it legitimately and entirely

But when we asked the Food Standards Agency about who decides

if the passport is authentic, they told us it is the company's

responsibility to ensure they accept horses and passport which

have been identified correctly. The FSA has also confirmed to Spotlight

that there is an ongoing investigation into inconsistencies

around a number of horse passports which have been used for the

slaughter of horses at Red Lion. We asked how peak meat exports which

operates Red Lion abattoir about that investigation and there

representative told us -- High Peak Spotlight understand that they

passports under investigation are English horse passports. Red Lion

to say that as far back as two years ago they did become concerned

about the authenticity of horse passports coming from Ireland. So

much so that they said they wrote to the FSA and the Department for

the Environment, Food end rural affairs about the issue. DEFRA and

the FSA confirmed they received letters in May 2007. Much has been

made of these letters in the press. They have been reported as Red Lion

blowing the whistle on the Irish horse meat problem but while they

do refer to issues with the Irish horse passports, much of their

focus is on commercial disadvantages to Red Lion, as to

what they see as the over-zealous enforcement of regulations in the

UK, as opposed to the regulatory regime in the Republic of Ireland.

Red Lion also say they turned away hundreds of horses, many of them

from Ireland, in the cases where the paperwork was inadequate. They

gave us a specific example of when this happened, explaining on 21st

February 2011, they turned away 10 horses supplied by a horse dealer

in County Kildare called Mailey cash. We contacted him to ask about

his dealings with the Red Lion's owner, Derek Turner.

Mailey Cash has agreed to meet me. I am on my way to meet him at a

horse fair. There is a specific incident we

have been told about in February 2011 where there was a problem with

the horse's passports and they were horses from yourself. Have you

heard about that? What do you know about it? When was that? We were

told it was February 2011. Never. There was never a problem. It was

never a problem. And you have been doing business with him since 2011?

I have. When was the last time he was over to you? Cripes. It could

have been a month ago. I sold him 18 horses. So why did, yes, no

problem. As recently as that? To that is very strange. He was

singled out as a horse dealer whose horses were turned away from Red

Lion abattoir but clearly he has given a different account and what

is more, he says Red Lion are among his best customers and he has been

sending them horses up until a few weeks ago. His account of his

business dealings with Derek Turner, the end of Red Lion abattoir seemed

to be backed up by independent evidence. Last year, Hillside

animal-welfare charity mounted an investigation into Red Lion,

installing secret cameras inside the abattoir. In November 2012 they

filmed this footage which appears to show cruelty to horses before

The management of Red Lion say that, whilst they do not defend any

breaches, these examples were the only problems identified during

filming, which recorded the slaughter of hundreds of horses.

But the animal welfare charity also wanted to know where bosses were

coming from, so be tracked a lorry leaving Red Lion. We filmed lorries

unloading courses at the abattoir, then use a clone intelligence-

gathering to see where those lorries were going and we found

they were going to a horse dealer in Ireland then coming back. They

were going to one South West of Dublin. The company -- the charity

should us the tracking data they collected, showing the horses came

here to County Kildare, this was a November 2012, almost a year and a

half after Red Lion said they had turned away horses because of

passport issues. We went back to Red Lion to clarify whether they

still have concerns about passports supplied by Mr Cash and whether

they still used him as a supplier. But they refused to answer any more

questions. The export of live horses to

England seems to have occurred under a passport system wide open

to abuse. But tonight, we can reveal that the story does not end

in equine abattoirs and the UK, in fact, there may have been problems

closer to home. To understand why, you just have to look at the

numbers. In the UK last year, nearly 9,500

horses and officially recorded as having been slaughtered. Just under

4,500 of them in Red Lion abattoirs. But last year, in the Republic of

Ireland, almost 25,000 horses were slaughtered. When it came to

slaughtering courses for export into the human food chain in Europe,

Ireland eclipsed England by far. And every horse lot of should have

had a passport. -- every horse slaughtered. Meet Charlie, by now,

maybe the most famous horse in Ireland. Journalists from all over

the world have wanted to meet him, because his story gets to the heart

of the apparent inadequacies in the Irish passport system. Because

Charlie, according to his microchip and passport, is officially dead.

After Charlie was found wandering the streets of Longford Town,

Hilary Robinson from a horse sanctuary was called out to rescue

him. She scanned his microchip, checked official records and

discovered that Charlie was recorded as having been slaughtered

for human consumption on the 24th March 1920 12. -- 2012.

Are you surprised this happened? Knowing what I know now, no. At the

time, I was surprised. We had horses that were supposed to be

dead that were still alive. We told the department on numerous

occasions about the whole passport issue problem, but it is only now

people are starting to take notice. Hilary believes that Charlie

survive for a reason. He was not large enough to be slaughtered, so

his passport was used for another horse. Charlie is small in stature,

so I am sure a heavier, worth more money, horse went down the chute to

be slaughtered. What do you think of the Irish horse passport system

caused Mark -- passport system? we say it is very loose and easy to

be misused. It needs to be tighter and more affordable. Would you put

an estimate on the number of Charlies out there, horses that

have been slaughtered using someone else's identity? I am sure there

are hundreds. We are only a small place and have found three. How

many more are there across the country and across Europe?

Hillary was told by the passport issuing authority that a horse

holding Charlie's passport had been recorded as having been slaughtered

at an abattoir. Independently, the USPCA were also concerned about

this company. Acting on a tip-off, they sent a surveillance team there

from the 28 until the 30th March last year, just a few days after

the horse bearing Charlie's passport has been recorded as

slaughtered. This video is from that surveillance operation,

showing a man repeatedly beating a horse to go inside the abattoir. He

does it again a few minutes later. When the horse resists, another man

appears to reverse a machine towards it. The other man then

ushers it inside the abattoir. We informed the company of this

footage and asked them to comment. The denied that any of horses had

been treated cruelly prior to slaughter. The County Council also

confirmed that a vet was pleasant - - was present at the plant on that

day. We told the county council about

this footage and asked for a comment, but it is not -- but they

did not respond. The council said it was not aware of any breach of

legislation that would give any cause of concern to the public or

the council. There is no evidence that of horses

in this footage did not have proper documentation, but there is

evidence that concerns had been raised last year in an e-mail to

the authorities in the UK about alleged issues with horse passports

in this company. This is the e-mail sent to DEFRA in

the UK last March. It was written by a whistleblower in Ireland,

passed it to someone associated with Red Lion abattoir. That person

for readied be e-mailed to DEFRA. We cannot substantiate the serious

allegations in his e-mail, which were passed on to the authorities

by someone working for a competitor, but a detailed, naming individuals

associated, and alleging illegal practices which the whistleblower

says should be investigated. We know DEFRA has received this e-mail,

because they have confirmed it. We asked DEFRA if they acted on this

e-mail. They said it would be normal practice when receiving

allegations of this kind for them to alert the Irish Department of

Agriculture. So we asked the Department of Agriculture here in

Dublin if they had received those allegations. They said they were

not aware of them, but the department told us it has

possession of a number of horse passports removed from the premises

of the alleged company and that those are being examined as part of

a wider examination -- investigation. The company said

their blood is operated in accordance with all legislation.

They also serve the plant is not the subject of any complaint from

any of the relevant authorities and denied the allegations in the e-

mail sent to DEFRA. Spotlight has also discovered that

solicitors for the company have threatened to underrate Robinson

with libel proceedings, because they say she has been suggesting

another horse was deliberately passed off as Charlie. -- Fred and

Hilary Robinson. They denied the company had never had any record of

all horse with Charlie's passport. But there was confirmation that the

passport was returned and there is no awareness of any circumstances

that would happen for any other purpose than to report -- and to

record the War Horse as having been slaughtered.

The big question, of course, is who knew about the trade of Irish or

Cezanne false passports and when? As we have discovered, several

Government agencies have been aware for longer than you might find.

Spotlight understands that, in November 2011, a multi-agency

meeting was held at Aintree Racecourse. One of the subjects

discussed was the problem of horse passports and the transport of low

Matt Duke Irish horses to English abattoirs. The meeting was attended

by representatives from DEFRA, the SS PCA, officials from trading

standards, the World Horse Welfare Trust and officials from the

Department of Agriculture and Rural Development in Northern Ireland.

The fact that horse passports more discussed would this -- were

discussed would suggest that as far back as two years ago all these

agencies knew there was a problem. To actually get all those agencies

into one room and talking was a major achievement by someone.

Secondly, it would need to be a really important issue to get of

those agencies together and talking at the same time. And the third

thing is that when that meeting was over the people leaving that

meeting, within their own departments, had a responsibility

to tidy up and check out anything alleged which fell under their

responsibility. We do not believe that happened and I would go so far

as to say nothing happened. In 2011, in Aintree, there was a

meeting where there were many representatives and two agencies

President told us the movement of low horses was discussed. --

agencies present. It may have been mentioned about abattoirs, but it

was largely about welfare during the transfer of horses. In any

event, in Northern Ireland, my staff examine consignments of

horses leaving Northern Ireland for England and check their passport

and welfare. This woman says they have been aware of this issue for

some time, that she alerted authorities to a number of holding

yards where low far your horses were corralled together before

being moved away in lorries, she suspected, to be slaughtered for

human consumption. She said she alerted about the issue time and

time again. We contacted the Animal Health and Welfare team at the

Department of Agriculture. When would that have been? Around 2005-

2006, explaining we felt that these holding yards really did need to be

policed. Your first contact them at eight years ago about this problem?

Yes. How many times have you been on to them since? Countless times,

and continually told it was not there remade, -- We met, nothing to

do with them, they did not want to know. Why were the holding of these

horses? I do not know why. As I say, if I had been aware of them, or

made aware of them, we would have investigated this did the with

respect, I have a letter here written telling you about these.

was told in 2009 and the concern was these low value horses were

being moved from those holding yards to abattoirs in England or to

markets in England. If I had the information, and the information on

a letter, I would be happy if you could give that to me, and I could

investigate that aspect. But if I had information which would have

allowed me to investigate, a move would have done so.

So how much did the authorities in the South know? The Department of

Agriculture in the Republic were not part of the Aintree meeting two

years ago. But we understand they were made aware of the problem.

The Department of her culture certainly knew there was a problem

with Irish horses. -- Department of Agriculture. A problem with

movement and with the paperwork. There is no room for manoeuvre on

that. That was known. In the Republic, we also know of one

approach to the Department of Agriculture which have hard

evidence of wrongdoing. In fact, that approach was made by her mac

insider. -- our insider. So you went to a department

official in the Republic? You told them what you were working at? Yes.

What did he say? To let them is clean itself up. And you went back

to work? I showed him, even two books with me that day. What books?

Dodgy horse books and he had them in his own hand. Did he keep them?

No, he handed them back to me. did not want to know? He did not.

Did you ever go back? No, why would you go back?

We asked the Department of Agriculture if they had any record

of what the insider had told them. The department has said it does not

comment on individual cases. We also asked on a number of occasions

for an interview with the Minister. The Department declined and said

the Minister was too busy. The horsemeat crisis began when

Irish officials at tested supermarket products for equine DNA.

It seems that some parts of that story are now coming full circle

back to Ireland. Checks on horse slaughtering and the export of live

horses are now being intensified, both north and south of the border,

but according to our insider, that is simply a case of shutting the