Waste disposed of at no costor rather at the expense of Municipality of Catania. We must start from this axiom to understand the scope of theoperation Calliope. The raid by the financial police, delegated by the Etna prosecutor’s office, involved 18 people. Among them several employees unfaithful from the Dustya company specialized in environmental hygiene which for several years has been responsible for the waste collection service in the area of the Etna capital. To set off the alarm in 2021, and a subsequent internal investigation entrusted to private detectives who used GPS devices, was a delivery of waste partially rejected, because non-compliant, at the gates of the landfill of the Sicula Transportin the territory of Lentini. According to the investigative findings, some employees, by improperly using company resources, created an illegal structure specialized in the collection, management and disposal of waste. All with the complicity of some entrepreneurs – who ended up under investigation – who allegedly entrusted themselves to the alleged criminal group. The operational base is a land in Calliope Streetin the San Cristoforo district.
Among the key figures of the association is the suspect Lorenzo Messina. The man, classified with the role of coordinator or foremanwas not an employee directly employed by Dusty but he was part of the pool of workers who were confirmed in the transfer of the contract from one company to another. According to the magistrates, over the years, several people have disappeared from the company’s fleet roll-off containers, that is, large containers for waste storage. The same ones that would then be placed within areas belonging to private companies in the industrial area or in private land in via Calliope. In this way the client entrepreneurs they would have had the opportunity to fill the bins with your own waste. The same ones who were then loaded into Dusty vehicles which, without authorization or by deviating from the pre-established routes, carried out this sort of home service.
Loaded everything, mixing with the garbage of non-separated urban waste collection, the route included the last stop in the Coda Volpe district for the delivery of what was transported. The involvement of Sicula Trasporti does not emerge in the investigation, although the Noe carabinieri, in a note reported in the precautionary custody order, indicate that «it does not appear clear, at the moment, how and where the special waste is stored and disposed of, in moment in which they cross the entrance gates of Sicula Trasporti or of GE.SA.C.it being possible to hypothesize (but it is reiterated, there is no evidence at the moment), even the possible complicity of one or more subjects within Sicula Trasporti itself, with the task of facilitating the reception and channeling of waste within the headquarters of the systems in
question”.
Doing the math in this business is not an easy task. However, the cost per ton for disposal can give an idea: equal to around 180 euros. If we consider that each roll-off waste container contains around ten tonnes, the illicit disposal would have entailed a cost, for the Municipality of Catania and the community, of around 1800-2000 euros. According to the accusations, some companies were part of the illicit circuit. Among these stands out Imprimet srl, with a plant in the Etna industrial area, attributable to an entrepreneur already involved in the past in an investigation for the illicit management and disposal of waste. The ordinance also makes reference to Cdl Ecology by Gaetano Di Grande and the FEY of the Chinese entrepreneur Tiguag Chen. The garbage collector would also have been included in the illegal arrangement Andrea Pirrello. The man, already sentenced to 4 years for theft, in an intercepted dialogue dating back to 2022 explained to a woman that despite appearing to be in service at Dusty, he was actually involved in mixing waste at the site in via Calliope: «Like which are at Dusty – he said – I have three gasoloni (waste containers, ed), I’m downloading another one cascia». The interlocutor, perhaps being aware of the turnover, replied: «mee… today we make money. But how much money have you earned.” The man didn’t need to be asked and replied: «Today they should bring me a thousand euros».
