The horse meat had been slaughtered without controls and was ready to be sold to unsuspecting buyers in the province of Syracuse. And it all happened illegally, slaughtering 13 horses that were in the “Assocarni” factory in Rocca di Neto, previously seized by the Court of Crotone and subjected to bankruptcy proceedings.
This is how we can summarize the alleged illicit slaughter of animals discovered by the Crotone Prosecutor’s Office with the investigation that first led to the residence ban in Calabria and then to the arrest of Carmine Marino, a 45-year-old from Rocca di Neto, judicial custodian of the slaughterhouse managed by the bankruptcy trustee. The precautionary measure was ordered by the preliminary investigation judge, Assunta Palumbo, at the end of the hearing for the validation of the arrest in flagrante delicto carried out by the Carabinieri on 9 November.
But the register of suspects also includes five other people who must answer for having organized and completed the illegal slaughter of the 13 “Assocarni” horses. The following are accused: Renato Nociti, 51 years old from Cassano allo Ionio; Raffaele Lagani, 52 years old from Rocca di Neto; Valentina Sorbaro, 35 years old from Rocca di Neto; Alex Kenfasela, 37 years old resident of Isola Capo Rizzuto; and Aboubacar Ricane Kouruma, a 34-year-old from Guinea and resident in Puglia.
The deputy prosecutor Matteo Staccini, owner of the file, accuses them of the crimes of violating the seals and killing animals. While the violation of the rules on the treatment of animals and water is attributed to Marino, Nociti, Sorbaro, Kenfasela and Ricane Kouruma.
The story took hold a few days ago, when the soldiers of the Carabinieri “caught” Nociti entering the “Assocarni” with a vehicle that is generally used for the transport of animals. This was enough for the Carabinieri of the Nas of Cosenza to raid the warehouse at around 6pm. Here the investigators could not do anything other than note that the horses had been killed with the suspects caught emptying the carcasses. Not only that. Subsequent checks conducted by the vets of the Crotone ASP also revealed that 3 of the 13 horses were equipped with chips, therefore they were not destined for slaughter. During the interrogation before the investigating judge, Marino, defended by the lawyer Mario Nigro, admitted his responsibilities. That is, that he had agreed with Nociti to violate the seals in order to enter the plant so as to allow the slaughter of the horses with the collaboration of the other suspects. Furthermore, for each animal treated, the judicial custodian of “Assocarni” would then receive a sum of money from Nociti himself who would proceed to sell the meat in Sicily. But it was the bankruptcy trustee who reported some anomaly in the shed who – already on 19 September – had noticed the presence of a slaughtered animal.