23/09/2026

Thirteen years after "horsegate", the 2013 scandal that saw undeclared horsemeat turn up in industrial lasagne, cannelloni and frozen ragù sold across Europe, the continent is once again confronting an illegal horse trade that is structured, transnational and worryingly large in scale. The operation was coordinated by Europol and carried out on 8 and 9 September 2026. It was led by the Belgian authorities with the participation of France, Ireland and the Netherlands. It involved almost 200 officers, resulted in 24 searches and led to checks on more than 1,000 horses suspected of having been subject to document fraud. In Belgium three suspects were arrested, two of whom were remanded in custody. Phones, computers and at least €100,000 in cash were seized.

At the heart of the investigation, which is still ongoing, is a suspected criminal network that allegedly manipulated the identity and history of thousands of equines so that they could be moved and resold across European borders. The traffickers forged horse passports and tampered with subcutaneous microchips, effectively wiping out the animals' health history: origin, veterinary drug treatments, and whether or not they were fit for slaughter. Sport horses are classified by law as animals not intended for food production. They were reclassified as "worthless" and sold to slaughterhouses for between €1,000 and €1,500 per head. In other cases, older horses were passed off as younger animals to fetch higher prices on the regular market.

Ireland served as the main country of origin of the animals. Belgium was the hub through which unfit meat entered the food chain.

The structural flaws of a system that does not learn

What is striking, after a cycle now thirteen years long, is not so much the traffickers' recidivism as the persistence of the conditions that make these frauds possible. On paper, the regulatory distinction between DPA animals (intended for food production) and non-DPA animals is a food-safety safeguard. Racehorses, competition horses and leisure horses receive veterinary drug treatments over their lifetime. For many of these substances, EU legislation has set neither maximum residue limits for food safety purposes nor withdrawal periods before slaughter. The presence of these residues in meat is a real and unquantifiable toxicological risk for consumers.

Yet the DPA/non-DPA distinction remains virtually unenforceable without an integrated traceability system. Eva Rigonat, a veterinarian and author of the book Veterinaria e mafie ("Veterinary Medicine and the Mafias"), explained the gaps to Il Fatto Alimentare:

• EU countries do not communicate with one another on this front. The European equine register is decentralised, with each Member State responsible for its own traceability.
• There is no EU-wide obligation to make equine movements public in real time at supranational level.
• Paper passports are relatively easy to forge.
• Clandestine slaughterhouses are places where microchips disappear without anyone actually recording the animal's death, so the horse officially remains alive somewhere.

The result is a map of grey areas that traffickers know better than the authorities. And it resurfaces time and again.

Italy: the largest consumer, and the notable absentee

One fact jars with the scale of the September operation: Italy does not appear among the countries involved in the investigation. Yet it is the leading consumer of horsemeat in Europe and the world's largest importer of the product. More than 25,000 tonnes of meat cross its borders every year from France, Poland and Slovenia to supply butchers and the food industry.

Italy's absence from the investigation is not good news. Rather, it suggests that the national authorities have not detected, or have not shared with Europol, any relevant signals in one of the markets most exposed to risk. Investigators are still reconstructing the final destination of the trafficked horses. The meat may have been sold as fresh retail cuts, or minced and added to industrial preparations, ready meals or cured meats, and then distributed in several European countries.

A logic IHP knows well

This Europol operation confirms an analysis that IHP has been advancing for years. The problem is not cyclical. It cannot be traced back to isolated episodes of opportunistic crime, and it will not be solved by periodic raids. It is structural, rooted in the recycling logic that governs the racing industry and the world of equestrian sport. Heavily medicated horses that are no longer economically profitable must be disposed of by the system at low cost. There is no adequate network of rescue facilities, and no effective sanctions for those who send these horses illegally to slaughter. As long as that remains true, the black market is the path of least resistance.

Tackling the phenomenon effectively requires action on the control framework. Legislation is needed that shows a clear commitment to controlling slaughtered animals and requires the creation of public, accessible European databases. Thirteen years after horsegate, the lesson has not been learned. As long as the horsemeat supply chain continues to operate in this control vacuum, the risk to horses and to consumers will remain unchanged.