Arrested for stealing 96 goats in Tenerife

The Guardia Civil have arrested a 34-year-old man and a 42-year-old woman, accused of stealing almost a hundred goats from a cattle farm in the municipality of La Victoria in the north of Tenerife. The man took advantage of being in charge of taking care of the livestock, and knowing that the owner of the same was not in the facilities, stole 96 goats over three years.

The woman, who has been arrested is a relative of the man, was the manager at the farm that is home to 476 goats. She was investigated by police after filing a denuncia for the robbery of 113 goats from the farm, most of which were the same ones missing, which could be identified by ear tags, but agents were able to verify that the stopover in the area through which the alleged perpetrators had allegedly been able to access to commit the crime, was implausible.

Once agents had these facts, they carried out several inspections in various livestock farms on the island, finding part of the stolen cattle in an abandoned farm in a suburb of Santa Cruz. The defendant had raised his own cattle with the stolen goats and was surprised by the agents while he was letting them out in to a field.

In addition, during the investigation, agents found 32 ear tags of the stolen cattle, hidden inside the farm that they had supposedly been stolen from, and four of the ‘reportedly stolen’ goats in a pasture attached to the farm. In total, investigators were able to account for 96 of the 113 goats that the woman reported stolen, which the farmer has valued at 11,500 euros.  The proceedings ordered have been made available to the San Cristóbal de La Laguna Police Investigating Court for sentencing.