"Seventeen individuals and 26 companies, including V. Ponte & Sons and Barretti Carting, among the best known private haulers in the city, were indicted in June." [source: The New York Times September 16, 1995 ]
Two Long Island garbage haulers who had fed information about organized
crime to investigators were murdered (Robert M. Kubecka and his brother-in-law,
Donald Barstow.) Charged in the slayings were "Anthony Salvatore ["Gaspipe"]
Casso, who officials say is the acting boss of the Lucchese crime family and
who was captured in January, and Salvatore Avellino Jr., said to be a powerful
captain in the family and the long-dominant figure in Long Island's private
garbage-collection business."
[source: The New York Times April 13, 1993 ]
"In April, a Federal grand jury indicted James Failla, the head of the
Association of Trade Waste Removers of Greater New York, on racketeering
charges. Prosecutors contended that he is a captain in the Gambino crime family
and has used force and threats to divide up collection routes."
[source: The New York Times October 7, 1993 ]
"The Attorney General said his office was investigating possible links
between the Cibro terminal and the Gambino crime family, and possible
connections of the Lucchese and Genovese families to the transportation of the
contaminated oil from the W.A.S. Terminal in Newark and the Constable Terminal
in Bayonne."
[source: The New York Times May 28, 1993 ]
"Europe has a garbage Mafia and they will try to carry out their deals
regardless of how strict the law is," Romanian Environment Minister Aurel
Constantin Ilie said.
[source: The Reuter Library Report April 4, 1993 ]
Rona was used by many northern-based companies needing to dispose of toxic and harmful substances at low cost. Sig Fiorillo's name was mentioned in April 1991 during a judicial investigation in Naples into a Como-based company, Ecomovil, and it also emerged that Rona had a branch in Brindisi.
Rona was depositing toxic materials in a large waste disposal site at Pianura, owned by the brothers Domenico and Francesco La Marca, who are now under investigation on suspicion of collusion with the camorra. The head of the family, Salvatore La Marca, former mayor of Ottaviano, was accused (and then acquitted) of having links with the camorra. It was he who set up the waste disposal business, through the creation of Fungaia Monte Somma, a company active in many areas, from mushroom-growing and livestock-rearing to the disposal, storage and treatment of all types of waste.
Rosario Gava also tried to organise the export of harmful substances. Together with Sig Fiorillo he tried in February 1988 to buy the UK ship Acrux, which was fitted out for the transport of toxic waste. Rona agreed to pay L426m for the vessel, but subsequently withdrew from the deal, losing the L20m surety it had paid.
The mechanism by which toxic waste was illegally dumped in Campania was described to magistrates in Naples by Nunzio Perrella, a "supergrass" who was arrested in 1992 for association with the mafia and for drug trafficking. He said that the local councillor in charge of ecological matters, Raffaele Perrone Capano, a Liberal, used to procure the necessary authorisations and permits for the disposal. The cost per kilogramme of waste was L25, of which Sig Perrone Capano received L10. In exchange, Sig Perrella said, he and his associates procured votes for Liberal party election candidates.
The investigators are scrutinising the activities of Gaetano Cerci, of
Caserta, the owner of the firm Ecologia '89 and nephew of Francesco Bidognetti,
right-hand-man of Francesco Schiavone (known as Sandokan), the boss of the
Casalesi camorra clan. Sig Cerci was mentioned by Sig Perrella and the Naples
magistrates believe he is the key link between the Casalesi clan and Licio
Gelli, head of the former masonic lodge P2. Telephone tapping by Rome police
proved that Sig Cerci stayed several times at Sig Gelli's Villa Wanda, near
Arezzo. A few days ago Villa Wanda was searched, on orders of the Naples public
prosecutor, but police failed to find the computer discs that they were looking
for."
[original source: IL MONDO, 26 April 1993, P71 ]
"Half of the industrial waste produced in Italy each year falls into the hands of organized crime groups who dispose of it illegally for record profits, according to a recent study by the Legambiente environmental group.
The report, Rifuiti (Waste) S.P.A., said that each year more than
28,000 trucks carry about 13 million tons of industrial and toxic
waste from northern and central Italy to illegal dumping sites in
the south of the country."
[source: BNA INTERNATIONAL ENVIRONMENT DAILY
May 8, 1995 ]
Note: Copies of the report are available from Daniel Giombi, Legambiente, Via Salaria 280, 00199, Rome, Italy; telephone: +39-6-8442277; fax: +39-6-8443504.