The AN will hold in June the trial against the plot that sold horse meat unfit for human consumption

MADRID, 6 Abr. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The National Court has set a date for the trial against the eleven people accused of selling horse meat knowing that it had not passed the necessary sanitary controls or that the animals were found to be unfit for human consumption, and of doing so a price lower than the market average. Specifically, three days have been scheduled: June 19, 20 and 21.

Legal sources consulted by Europa Press indicate that although they have not come to fruition, it is possible that the Prosecutor's Office reaches agreements in accordance with several of the defendants. In the indictment, he requested sentences ranging from four to nine and a half years in prison.

In the order to pass to the abbreviated procedure, of February 2022, the head of the Central Court of Instruction Number 3, María Tardón, left this alleged plot for crimes against public health, false documentary and criminal group before the bench. the amount of "existing evidence" collected in the investigative phase.

As explained by the magistrate, those investigated participated since October 2016 in the market introduction for consumers of horse meat "unfit for human consumption, avoiding the traceability of the meat and thus sanitary control."

It was a business that they developed "for profit, since the price of animals unfit for human consumption was much lower than that for consumers." Thus, and "in order to balance the accounts of the companies and camouflage the real state of the same, fictitious billings were made."

"In this way, the large number of sacrifices or manufactures of meat was camouflaged to prevent it from being investigated by the administrative authorities, always handling the money in cash," the judge pointed out.

To do this, they used animals that did not have any type of identification or were dedicated to awarding them one artificially. Thus, and to ensure that a horse with a red passport was suitable for sale, they used documents of dead horses on the farm and that had not been recorded in the system.

In the worst case, the defendants used horses that were unfit for human consumption for different reasons and that entered the slaughterhouse where they were slaughtered and then entered the human food chain "due to the lack of control by the official veterinarian ".

And for this chain to work, the judge pointed out, the agreement between the "enterers" of cattle in the slaughterhouses, those in charge of the centers and the veterinarian himself was "essential". "They carried out this activity, avoiding the control of the veterinarians dependent on the Administration or in collusion with one of these and for this they falsified the official documents related to guaranteeing the traceability of the animals," she explained.

At the beginning of this dynamic and as the person in charge of getting the horses to the slaughterhouses, Tardón placed Javier Fernández, who was helped by Alejandro Domínguez and Bernardino Castro.

This entry of cattle unfit for human consumption was carried out through two slaughterhouses located in the province of León. In the first, located in Astorga, those in charge of purchasing the product were Felix Iñigo Roldán and Carlos Valeriano Sanz. The Toreno slaughterhouse was managed by Fernando de Sousa and his wife, Maria Mercedes Arias.

In the first center, moreover, they had the connivance of an official veterinarian, without it being possible to determine which of them was helping them; while in Toreno they had the connivance of the official veterinarian, Ángel Major de Benito.

"These veterinarians did not exercise the inspection functions that corresponded to their position, in such a way that it was possible for meat not suitable for human consumption to be finally destined for this purpose with a risk to the health of consumers," explained Tardón.

Thus, in the Toreno slaughterhouse some 2,080 specimens were slaughtered throughout the year. However, according to official data from the Castilla y León Community Livestock Department, during 2015, only 512 horses were slaughtered in said slaughterhouse.

As an example of the practices followed in these centers, the judge focuses on March 7, 2017, when four horses that "showed clear signs of melanomas" were sacrificed. The price of meat processed in the center of Toreno was set at 1.50 euros per kilogram.

The order reflects that the specimens "were butchered in said facilities, having to remove the meat that showed obvious signs of melanoma, leaving only 20% of the meat where the black nodules were not visible in order to be destined for human consumption." .

In the last place of this organization chart were those in charge of the distribution of meat products from these two slaughterhouses. Thus, those responsible for the meat reaching the consumer were Patrice Grima Estarlich and Johanes Maria Marius Cornelius, who used the company CODELTA 91 whose manager was Dionisio Pingarón.

The analysis of the state of the product they were selling was produced as a result of the entries and records that the Civil Guard carried out in 2017 in both centers, from where they took samples that showed that the meat contained, among other things, traces of chloramphenicol or antibacterial residues. above the limits.

The agents also located monensin sodium and robenidine in the product, "substances that should not be used" in horses, for which they are toxic. These products also have similar effects in humans: alteration of the calcium balance in cell membranes that damage heart and liver cells, causing failure in both organs, with systematization of the damage.