Friends of Ours

The Mafia Isn't A Green Outfit

The dirty Mafia is a stinkin' polluter.

Last year the Mafia in Italy earned 16 billion euros or nearly $20 billion "through a depressing litany of environmental crimes, from dumping toxic waste to illicit coastal development and the trafficking of endangered species" as reported by Nick Squires for The Telegraph.

Mafia Pollutes Italy With Illegal Dumping

Among the lucrative rackets for the Mafia groups in Italy is dumping toxic and other waste which generates 20 billion euros or nearly $30 billion a year according to the annual Ecomafia report by the environmental organization Legambiente as reported by Michael Day for The Independent:

Campania, the region around Naples whose streets are perpetually carpeted in piles of stinking garbage, is the worst-hit part of the country, it is claimed. The local mafia, the Camorra, is frequently blamed for exacerbating or even causing the rubbish crisis – by encouraging the closure of official incineration plants – in order to fan demand for its illegal dumping services.

Related:

Waste Magnate Charged With Camorra Ties

Mafia Impact On The Environment

The Italian environmental group Legambient has released its annual report on the Mafia for 2009, and identified its rackets which impact the environment including illegal waste dumping and animal exploitation involving "dogfighting, smuggling of endangered species, clandestine butchering and illegal horse races" as reported by AFP: "Renowned Italian writer and journalist Roberto Saviano, whose hard-hitting bestseller on the Camorra, 'Gomorra,' was turned into a film, said in an introduction to the Legambiente report that 'trash has become one of the most profitable businesses over the years.'"

Illegal Mafia Construction Blamed For Mudslide

Seventeen people were killed and at least 40 others injured in a mudslide near the northern Sicilian city of Messina, and "the scale of the disaster was blamed on illegal development linked to the mafia" as reported by Nick Squires for the Telegraph:

Locals and environmental groups said the disaster had been worsened by years of deforestation and illegal building of houses and apartment blocks, some of it linked to Sicily's Cosa Nostra mafia. "We're paying a very high price for having devastated the environment with unlawful and uncontrolled development," said Vittorio Cogliati Dezza, president of Italy's main environmental organisation, Legambiente. The head of the national civil protection agency, Guido Bertolaso, said authorities needed to put a stop to uncontrolled construction. "Either we take on the job of securing all the nation's territory, or these tragedies are destined to be repeated," he said.

Italy's Toxic Waste

AKI reports on the hand of the Mafia in Italy's toxic waste racket:

Up to 174 million tonnes of contaminate garbage, much of it toxic waste, has been trucked across Italian highways in the past decade, according to one of the country's largest environmental organisations. Legambiente claimed 39 mafia clans were behind the shipments which were worth 7 billion euros a year, in collusion with local officials. * * * Enrico Fontana, national director of Legambiente said all of Italy's criminal organisations were involved, but it was not only a question of mafia crime. "The profits are so high because there is something in it for every one," Fontana said. There is nothing strange about a strategic alliance between the mafia and white collar workers that have found the ideal synthesis.