(ANSA) - In a string of coordinated raids across Italy, police on Monday smashed an organized crime ring which dealt in the illegal disposal of trash. Thirty-one people were arrested in a nationwide operation by the Carabinieri's environmental division, while a further 68 were taken in for questioning.
The group is thought to have handled around 1.2 million tonnes of trash annually, generating around 90 million euros of profits, police sources said. Operating as an above-board waste disposal network, the group received local government contracts to clean up polluted sites.
But rather than dispose of the waste safely, it merely shifted the pollutants elsewhere, burying the material in protected nature areas or in the foundations of new buildings. Twenty-one firms were involved in the scam, which is thought to have been the source of at least three major incidences of water pollution.
Investigators have also accused the group of bribing local administrations and using fake papers to escape detection. Environmental group Legambiente praised the work of the police, describing the coordinated raids, which involved 200 officers, as "brilliant".
But it criticized the government for failing to do enough to fight environmental crime, which it warned was a growing problem in Italy. "The very size of today's raid and the fact that this is the latest in a series of police operations against illegal waste-trafficking shows how widespread and well-organized environmental crime is in Italy," said Legambiente President Roberto Della Seta.
He pointed out that Monday's operation reflected a new trend in organized crime, which had branched out into "cleaning up" polluted sites. "We call on parliament and political groups to include environmental crimes in the penal code as soon as possible,"
he said. But the government, which last year set up an eco-crime division within its national anti-mafia agency, says existing
measures are tough enough.
"I don't believe that introducing longer prison sentences for environmental crimes by making them part of the penal code would act as a deterrent," explained Environment Minister Matteoli. "Prison is always a defeat for society - prevention is a far better solution".
A recent report by Legambiente found that all but one of Italy's 20 regions had been affected by mafia-linked environmental crime over the last decade. As in previous studies, the traditional presence of organized crime in southern Italy was reflected in the geographical breakdown of the problem. Violations in Campania, Puglia, Calabria and Sicily accounted for 39% of the country's eco-mafia activity.
In total, Legambiente noted there had been some 17,000 known environment-linked infractions since it first started its survey in 1994. This worked out at five such crimes per day, generating annual revenue of around 27 billion euros. On Monday, the group recalled that investigators had launched 47 inquiries into mafia-related waste crimes since 2002, resulting in 300 arrests.
Italian authorities have grappled with trash disposal problems for many years. The lack of legal landfill dumps and rubbish disposal plants, a particularly serious problem in the south, has proved irresistible to organized crime.
