Italian and Polish mafia gangs are blamed for horsemeat scandal as government warns MORE British products will be contaminated



Experts say beef is substituted for horse as part of multimillion pound scams

Environment secretary raises concerns of worldwide 'criminal conspiracy'

Food officials are being intimidated by cartels to sign off products as beefs



Testing is stepped up in Britain for horse DNA and results due within days



Wild horses in Romania are being slaughtered and shipped to Britain as beef

The animals suffer appalling cruelty, including being beaten with crowbars

Mafia gangs are suspected of orchestrating an ‘international criminal conspiracy’ worth millions of pounds by passing off horsemeat as beef.

Mobsters from Italy and Poland are believed to be behind the illegal trade which has led to British consumers eating horse when they believed they were buying beef.

The gangs are said to intimidate vets and workers in slaughterhouses and food production plants into signing off cheap cuts of pork and horse as beef.



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Global: European mafia gangs are thought to be behind horsemeat ending up in beef products

Italy is Europe’s biggest consumer of horsemeat and Poland exports around 25,000 horses for slaughter each year, making it big business in both countries. Russian gangs and criminals operating in the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania are also suspected of involvement, industry sources suggest.



Environment Secretary Owen Paterson as also raised concerns that a worldwide criminal network is behind the scandal.

Europol, a European-wide agency tackling organised crime and terrorism, has been informed, while the Government is looking to bring in the Serious and Organised Crime Agency.

The Metropolitan Police has already begun investigating and is said to be working with other forces on the continent.

Mr Paterson said: 'I'm concerned that this is an international criminal conspiracy here and we've really got to get to the bottom of it.'

His comments come just days after frozen foods company Findus UK revealed it had discovered horsemeat in its beef lasagne and has suggested it was deliberately contaminated.



The meat was supplied by French firm Comigel and is thought to have originated in Romania.

Authorities in the country are investigating whether an abattoir there was the source of the meat.



Global: Owen Paterson raised fears that a worldwide 'criminal conspiracy is behind the scandal'

It has also emerged that wild horses in Romania were slaughtered after suffering appalling cruelty, and there are fears that they were then shipped to Britain as beef products.

Investigators in the eastern European country have been searching sales records following the revelations that the stolen animals were mistreated on their way to abattoirs.

In one case, more than 50 horses were found inside a truck on its way to an abattoir in Saint Gheorghe, which is understood to have exported meat.



Four of the animals were dead and others were barely alive, having been beaten with crowbars and starved of food and water for 28 hours.

They are thought to have been caught from the Letea Forest in the Danube Delta, where thousands of wild horses roam.

A source close to the investigation told The Sun: 'The meat from this racket would almost certainly have been sent abroad and there's no telling where it would have wound up.

'You only have to look at the state of the poor animals to realise that the meat would have been of terrible quality and possibly unfit for human consumption.'



Testing of processed beef products, including those being supplied to hospitals, care homes, schools and prisons, was stepped up in Britain.



Results from the testing for horse DNA will be published by the Food Standards Authority on Friday.

Mr Paterson warned they could reveal further traces of horsemeat, but stressed there is no evidence that the scandal has become a public safety issue.



He said: 'There may well be more bad results coming through, that's the point of doing this random analysis.

Mr Paterson said retailers have agreed plans to improve their food testing, adding that they hold the 'ultimate responsibility' for making sure their products do not contain horse meat.

He was speaking after attending an emergency meeting with bosses from leading supermarkets, including Tesco, Sainsbury's, Asda and Morrisons, trade bodies and the FSA.

Cruel: Wild horses abused and slaughtered in Romania may have been ended up in the UK (library image)

NEW LAW BANNING HORSES FROM ROADS COULD BE TO BLAME

A law banning horses from Romanian roads may be responsible for the surge in the fraudulent sale of horse meat on the European beef market, a French politician has claimed. Horse-drawn carts were a common form of transport for centuries in Romania, but hundreds of thousands of the animals are feared to have been sent to the abattoir after the change in road rules.

The law, which was passed six years ago but only enforced recently, also banned carts drawn by donkeys, leading to speculation among food-industry officials in France that some of the 'horse meat' which has turned up on supermarket shelves in Britain, France and Sweden may, in fact, turn out to be donkey meat 'Horses have been banned from Romanian roads and millions of animals have been sent to the slaughterhouse,' said Jose Bove, a veteran campaigner for small farmers who is now vice-president of the European Parliament agriculture committee.



The scandal has seen chains Tesco, Lidl, Aldi and Iceland withdraw some products, and Mr Paterson said the industry has already begun plans to report test results on a quarterly basis.



He said it is down to retailers to visit manufacturers and make sure they stick to the proper protocols to be sure themselves that the materials going into their products are what they are meant to be.



They had also agreed that consumers should be compensated if they have bought withdrawn products with no questions asked, he said.

Mr Paterson added: 'It's a question of either gross incompetence, but as I've said publicly and I'll repeat again, I'm more concerned there's actually an international criminal conspiracy here, and we've really got to get to the bottom of it.

'If there's a criminal act we will work with the authorities wherever they are to ensure the appropriate measures are taken.

'This is a conspiracy against the public. Selling a product as beef, and including a lot of horse in it is fraud.'

Asked if there were any plans to test for traces of other meats, such as dog, he replied: 'It may be very isolated, it might be a small number of suppliers involved in the horse trade we don't know.

Investigation: Authorities are investigating of Spanghero, at the centre of the horsemeat scandal

'But I think that as we progress and we'll know more over the course of the next few weeks, we can decide what to do next.'

He also said a ban on importing meat would not be allowed within the rules of the EU but could be brought in if beef contaminated with horse meat is found to be a health risk.

Although no danger to humans has yet been found in eating the horsemeat so far detected, Mr Paterson said that if further tests find it does pose a risk he would 'take the necessary action'.



Initial findings: Horsemeat from Romania was sold to a meat plant in South-West France owned by French firm Spanghero, which then supplied Comigel

The FSA said there is no evidence to suggest the horsemeat is a food safety risk but confirmed that tests have been ordered on products for the veterinary drug phenylbutazone as animals treated with 'bute' are not allowed to enter the food chain.



Mr Paterson, appearing on BBC One's Sunday Politics show, said: 'This week obviously we'll be talking to counterparts across Europe, because ultimately this is European Union incompetence.'



But asked if there should be a moratorium on meat imports in the EU, he said: 'That is not allowed within the European common market.



'If they find there is a product which could potentially be injurious to public health, emphatically, I will take the necessary action.'



Asked if he would consider a ban if tests proved there was a food safety risk, he said: 'If there is a threat to public health that is allowed within the rules of the European market.'

Prime Minister David Cameron described the matter as 'shocking' and 'completely unacceptable', while Labour leader Ed Miliband said it was 'appalling'.

He added: 'I think people in the country will be quite shocked that horsemeat has been in the food that they have been innocently buying. The Government has got to get a grip on this situation.'

The Trading Standards Institute has said the discovery of such high levels of horse meat suggests 'deliberate fraudulent activity'.

Not hungry: Food minister David Heath (left) turns down a Findus meal from MoS man Nick Constable

Food safety experts have said there is no risk to public health.

Findus said it carried out a full product recall on Monday, two days before DNA tests found that some of its lasagnes contained up to 100% horsemeat.

The firm, which has its headquarters in London, tested 18 of its beef lasagne products, made by French food supplier Comigel, and found that 11 contained in the range of 60% to 100% horse meat.

Comigel is supplied meat by Spanghero, also in France. Authorities in France have begun an urgent investigation into the two companies, and Findus is considering taking egal action against them



Food minister David Heath yesterday declined an offer from The Mail On Sunday of a Findus spaghetti bolognese ready meal.



Mr Heath had insisted ready meals were safe following the withdrawal of the company's lasagne but said it would be 'bad politics' to follow former Tory Agriculture Minister Mr Gummer’s attempt to win public trust at the height of the 1990 mad cow crisis.



Tesco and Aldi have also withdrawn a range of ready meals produced by Comigel over fears that they contained contaminated meat.

Infamous photo call: Mr Heath said he wouldn't be 'revisiting' the John Selwyn Gummer saga who was photographed eating a burger and feeding some to his daughter Cordelia, 4, in an attempt to win public trust at the height of the 1990 BSE crisis

The GMB union said all hospitals, schools and meals-on-wheels services should verify that horse meat had not been served to vulnerable people.

Responding to fears that school dinners might be contaminated with horse meat, the Department for Education said schools and councils were responsible for their food contracts.

A spokeswoman for the Local Authority Caterers Association said: 'We are as sure as we can be that this is not affecting the school catering area.'