The Italian Waste Management Mafia

When one thinks of the mafia you automatically think of Al Capone, an American gangster known as ‘scarface’ or the TV series Sopranos or the Godfather movies.All these characters were Italian Americans made famous by Hollywood. The mafia origanted in Italy and continues to thrive today, however the source of their wealth has changed from illegal drug cartels or protection rackets to “legal” waste management.

The term ecomafia is used loosely in Italy to describe these criminal syndicates which illegally dispose of commercial, industrial, and hazardous waste. Former mafia-related organisations frequently illegally bury or burn waste and are known to build real estate on top of the dump sites.

The Camorra

The Camorra, a Mafia group based in Naples, isn’t actually that interested in household waste but it is interested in controlling the waste cycle, thus controlling the dumps. The Camorra fill the dump sites with household trash, recyclables and toxic industrial waste trucked in from around Italy.

The Italian government have previously needed to call in the army to clean up the mounting piles of waste in the city of Naples. Residents blame the authorities for not doing more to stop the Camorra, who control the collection of garbage in the city and have caused constant waste removal problems for more than a decade.

Why would the Mafia be interested in waste management?

It’s simple, find a business that’s easy to enter and financially viable to control. Criminal mobs make a lot of money from drugs, counterfeit goods, smuggling and even human trafficking, but creating a monopoly on garbage collection is attractive because it’s legal, and public contracts return sizable profits. On top of this it is also a way to launder money made from their illegal activities.Taking trash from one point to another is far easier than running a casino. All that is required is a couple of strong ‘wise’ guys and some reliable dump trucks There will always be a demand for waste removal services and good money can be made, without much risk..

To gain control of the waste management industry, the mafia makes use of infultrating the labour unions and most often serious threats of violence against their competitors(cement shoes and swimming with the fishes). With that in place, they ‘persaude’ their competitors to put in extremely high bids which they slightly under cut to win the right to provide their waste management services. Normally the businesses in the industry would drop prices to prevent competition from entering the market. Once in control, the mafia fix prices, rig bids, and allocate territories in such a way that customers have no choices about who picks up their garbage. The Camorra, a larger and older group than the Sicilian Mafia, have controlled the industry in Naples for about 25 years. The mob harasses non-Camorra garbage collectors and extorts money from them; meanwhile, its own companies do a shoddy job. Italy’s mafia mobs mix highly toxic and industrial waste along with household trash and place it into landfill in Naples and some other cities across Italy.

Mobs in In parts of Tbilisi (Georgia),Taiwan, New Jersey (1957 to 1990’s), also found profit in trash schemes. Italian mobs tend to operate in a diverse number of industries. The waste management industry provides relatively little in the way of revenue compared with gambling, narcotic sales and loan-sharking. The Camorra is thought to make $70 billion a year, much of it from drugs, contraband cigarettes, and DVDs, as well as public sector contracts in construction and cleaning. It is estimated that the mafia controls about 20% of businesses in Italy.

How does the burning of toxic waste, affect the health of the community?

Smoke from burning toxic waste can severly impact human health. People exposed to these toxic fumes can experience eye and nose irritation, permanent lung disease as well as difficulty breathing, coughing, nausea and severe headaches. People with asthma, emphysema, bronchitis, heart disease, or other respiratory diseases are especially sensitive to these air pollutants.

What are the affects of housing estates being built on top of waste management sites?

No dwellings should be built on previous waste management sites. Possible methane buildup, carbon dioxide, nitrogen, hydrogen and non methane organic compounds from landfill can reach hazardous levels. Methane can even cause explosions destroying the property. It is no coincedence that the Mafia are in the construction business. Most often their construction sites are used as a dumping ground for their toxic waste disposal.