Cesena: The Carabinieri Forestali seize a large unauthorized area containing approximately 600 scrapped vehicles

The Forestry Carabinieri of the Cesena Nucleus, coordinated by the Forestry Carabinieri Group of Forlì-Cesena, following investigations carried out on their own initiative, have a collection and scrapping centre for end-of-life vehicles was identified which carried out its activity outside the authorised perimeter of the plant in a municipality in the province of Forlì-Cesena. The seizure involved a neighbouring plot of land, with a surface area of ​​8.300 m600, used as a storage area for XNUMX vehicles no longer in use, some containers containing waste and various vehicle components.

The investigations were triggered during an inspection at a car scrapping facility located in a municipality in the province of Forlì. In addition to finding non-compliance with some of the requirements contained in the authorizations, an area adjacent to the facility was found, falling outside the authorized perimeter and without waterproof flooring, completely covered with end-of-life vehicles (mostly stacked) and other waste from the car scrapping facility.

From checks carried out, it emerged that the company had adopted this modus operandi since 2013, reaching between 2017-2018 a quantity of stored waste similar to the current one. Subsequently, in 2019, the area was cleared following a mayoral order; however, during the following years, the company had readopted the initial illicit conduct, thus determining the current quantity of waste.

For these facts the military have an Italian citizen, legal representative of the company having the availability of the land, was reported to the Judicial Authority who will be called to answer for the hypotheses of crime of waste management activities without authorization (pursuant to art. 256, paragraph 1, letter a), Legislative Decree 152/06, regulating environmental regulations, for which the penalty is imprisonment from three months to one year or a fine from two thousand six hundred to twenty-six thousand euros) and waste management activities in breach of the authorization (pursuant to art. 256, paragraph 4, Legislative Decree 152/06, which provides for a penalty of arrest from one and a half to six months or a fine from one thousand three hundred to thirteen thousand euros).

In light of the current legislation, the owner of the company will have the obligation to restore the conditions within the plant necessary to ensure compliance with the provisions contained in the environmental authorizations, to provide for the removal and subsequent demolition of all vehicles registered and stored there, as well as to carry out an investigation of the soil matrix, in order to verify whether such conduct has determined contamination of the site, in which case the offender would be subject to further and more significant penalties and the obligation to remediate.

The activity described is part of the actions carried out daily by the Carabinieri Forestale of the province of Forlì-Cesena, in defense of the environment in its various components of soil, water, air and biodiversity.