Slate Magazine explains why the Mafia is involved in trash smuggling.
It’s Mob Economics 101: Find a business that’s easy to enter and lucrative to control. Criminal organizations make lots of money from drugs, human trafficking, and counterfeit goods, but creating a monopoly on garbage collection is attractive because the business itself is legal, and public [...]
According to the United States Government, trash smugglers who illegally dump trash and other hazardous materials earn $10 to $12 billion.
Source: United States International Crime Threat Assessment, “Environmental Crimes,” December 15, 2000, available at Federation of American Scientists, (last accessed: January 30, 2006).
A 2005 report by the European Network for the Implementation and Enforcement of Environmental Law (IMPEL) found that ” international trade in waste is rapidly increasing.”
The report mentions the financial profit involved in trash smuggling creates a ” strong incentive for those in the waste chain to avoid controls over the movement and treatment of [...]
In the European Union, an enforcement operation found 48 percent of waste shipments were illegal.
Source: United Nations Environment Programme, “Basel Conference Addresses Electronic Waste Challenge,” Press Release, November 27, 2006, (accessed: January 9, 2007).
49 cases of hazardous waste smuggling containing 8,000 tons of solid waste were uncovered by Chinese Custom officials in 2006.
Source: Xinhua, “China customs uncover waste smuggling cases,” China Daily, January 31, 2007, (accessed: February 1, 2007).
As Italy’s trash crisis continues, the spread of the smell of toxic trash has spread to the world famous mozzarella cheese of the region.
From the NY Times:
In the last few months, sales of buffalo mozzarella have dropped 40 percent, the product’s trade association says. The problem makes for a near-perfect morality play about Italy: For [...]
The Guardian Newspaper is reporting that Italian Organized Crime group ‘Ndrangheta is involved in the transporting of radioactive waste and other nuclear materials.
The ‘Ndrangheta mafia, which gained notoriety in August for its blood feud killings of six men in Germany, is alleged to have made illegal shipments of radioactive waste to Somalia, as well [...]