International News / Mafia turns to 'eco-gangsterism' / John Hooper in Rome

Mafia turns to 'eco-gangsterism'

John Hooper in Rome

It had long been feared but never proved. Now Italian police say they have hard evidence that the Sicilian Mafia is involved in smuggling weapons-grade uranium. The evidence is a rod of enriched uranium seized near a train station in a suburb of Rome last month in a "sting" set up by an undercover agent. Police arrested 14 people, several of whom are suspected members of Cosa Nostra.

It is the latest evidence that the Mafia, and Italy's other big organised crime groups, are shifting their activities towards what an Italian environmental group, Legambiente, calls "eco-gangsterism". The group says Cosa Nostra, the Neapolitan Camorra, the Calabrian 'Ndrangheta and the Apulian Sacra Corona Unita made about $6.5 billion last year out of the desecration of the environment and the exploitation of animals.

Mafia interest in eco-gangsterism is growing at a vertiginous rate.
Legambiente's researchers found that the number of gangs or "clans" involved had almost doubled since January last year.

Prosecutors in Reggio Calabria are investigating claims that the 'Ndrangheta dumped radioactive waste off the "toe" of Italy, a favorite holiday destination. A witness claimed that the gang took the waste out to sea on tramp steamers. The crews were ferried to safety and the steamers scuttled.

A special unit of the paramilitary Carabinieri was set up two years ago to combat nuclear crime. More than a third of the 213 inquiries into the disposal of radioactive waste it carried out last year uncovered violations.

Taps on mobsters' telephones in the Sicilian city of Catania led police to the uranium rod. Catania is only known to have one Mafia "family" of importance. Its "specialty" has long been contraband.

Police said the rod was imported from the Democratic Republic of Congo, but originated in the former Soviet Union. Their agent, posing as a buyer, haggled the price down from $22.5 million to $11.5 million. Police believe another eight rods were brought in.

Uranium smuggling and other forms of eco-gangsterism offer a way out of the financial crisis facing organized crime in Italy. International investigators say that first the Sicilian Cosa Nostra was edged out of the heroin trade in the eighties, and now crime groups have been hit by the clampdown on corruption, known as Tangentopoli. 

Prosecutors have stemmed the flow of public contracts that mobsters used to steer towards companies they controlled or extorted. But there is still big money to be had in private building and waste disposal.

The sprawling, unplanned and unauthorized construction around Naples, Palermo and along the Calabrian and Apulian coasts bears witness to the power of the mobsters to suborn and intimidate officials and to infiltrate every aspect of the industry.

The returns from regional administrations show 1.6 million tonnes of dangerous waste was dumped outside its region of origin in 1996. Yet not one regional government reported having authorized the dumping of more waste than it produced. Almost half the country's output could not be accounted for. Environmentalists believe it has been quietly disposed of by organized crime.

The Guardian Weekly 


Michael D. Wallace
Department of Political Science
University of British Columbia
phone:(604)822-4550, fax:822-5540

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