Stolen Welsh cattle found on farms in Staffordshire

Police have recovered a herd of beef cattle, stolen from a farm on Anglesey four months ago, on two farms in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire.

North Wales Police’s Rural Crime Team raided the sites on Wednesday (12 April) after an extensive investigation.

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Footage filmed during the recovery operation show police loading the cattle into a trailer.

A man has been arrested on suspicion of the theft of cattle from a farm in Anglesey.

On 10/12/22, 14 cows were reported stolen near Llanerch-y-Medd.

Warrants executed on 12/4 in Stoke on Trent saw a man arrested in connection with the theft of the cattle and a tractor.

More 👇🏼 pic.twitter.com/OfAVHveK7S

— NWP Rural Crime Team/Tîm Troseddau Cefn Gwlad HGC (@NWPRuralCrime) April 13, 2023

A man was arrested in connection with the theft of the cattle, which had been stolen on 10 December.

He was later released pending further enquiries.

Sergeant Pete Evans, of the Rural Crime Team, said all the cattle suspected of being stolen were identified and seized in a co-ordinated operation, which involved the force’s drone unit, plus officers from Stoke, Cheshire Rural Crime Team and the National Vehicle Crime Intelligence Service.

There was also assistance from Rural Payments Wales and the British Cattle Movement Service.

“While at the location, we also located and recovered a John Deere tractor stolen from the Staffordshire area last year,” said Sergeant Evans.

‘Heartbroken’

Writing on Facebook last December, farmer Sion Hughes wrote that the theft of 15 in-calf cows and store cattle from a shed at Llannerch-y-medd had left him “heartbroken”.

Mr Hughes said he been farming for nearly 30 years and, despite enduring “man’s ups and downs over the years’’, this incident was among the worst he had experienced.

“Nothing has torn my heart out more than today,” he wrote at the time. “To see the upset and disbelief in my family’s eyes was too much.”