Two charged with selling horse meat

• Tweet

MIAMI, Oct. 7 (UPI) -- Two men are facing charges for allegedly selling horse meat at a ranch in the Miami-Dade area, police said.

The ranch owner, Roberto Aguedo Chavez, 53, and an employee, Ricardo Olivarez, 45, were arrested Tuesday after allegedly selling 10 pounds of meat to an undercover officer for $50, police said.

Police were acting on a tip when they went to the ranch and bought meat stored in an outdoor freezer filled with suspected horse meat, Detective Edna Hernandez, a Miami-Dade police spokeswoman, told The Miami Herald.

She said police suspect Chavez was killing his own horses and settling their meat for profit.

Police said they don't believe there is a link to the slaughter of nearly 20 horses in South Florida since January, which authorities have said they believe is linked to a black market demand for the meat.

Two Hialeah men were arrested last month for their alleged roles in the killing of two horses at separate Miami-Dade ranches. Charges against Saniago Cabrera, a 19-year-old from Hialeah, and Luis Miguel Cordero, 18, included animal cruelty and killing a registered breed horse.