An illegal waste dump was discovered and seized by the police in Aci Sant’Antonio, in the province of Catania. It all started with the report of a fire in a camper park: at this point the police discovered an expanse of rubbish on a hill behind the parked vehicles. The military then ascertained that there was no authorization for the construction of a landfill or a camper park on what was supposed to be simple agricultural land.
The land, of almost 4,000 square metres, was rented and managed by a 59-year-old local criminal believed to be contiguous to the Ercolano-Santapaola mafia family. Once they entered the land, the investigators discovered that the entire area was not only not used for agricultural use at all, but was intended for a dual use: a part, more visible and accessible to the public, was managed by a sub- 42-year-old renter of the place for workshop and camper parking, at the time of verification without any authorization; the remaining part was, however, accumulated waste of all kinds.
The task force that accessed the site which was not visible, as it was located on a hill and protected by parked campers and thick vegetation, had the opportunity to see an expanse of old carcasses of abandoned and already partly dismantled cars, two of which found to be subject to seizure, but also two boats now disused, a sandwich truck and a bus used as a warehouse for various types of hardware.
In addition to the scrap, numerous piles of construction material and waste, also considered dangerous, were found, deposited on the ground without any necessary treatment to avoid the infiltration of harmful substances into the ground. The military thus denounced the manager for having created an illegal landfill, with the uncontrolled deposition of waste, including dangerous waste, on the ground in an area subject to landscape restrictions. The workshop and camper park will instead have to regularize their position.
Continue reading on StrettoWeb
