Reggio Calabria: Caught Dumping Waste Into Rivers Thanks To Drones And Photo Traps. 3 Construction Contractors Arrested.

I Carabinieri of the Gioia Tauro Group on the front line to combat the uncontrolled abandonment of waste and the illegal discharge of sewage into the waterways of the Tyrrhenian side of the province of Reggio Calabria.

In the past few days, in fact, the soldiers of the Taurianova Company, assisted by the personnel of the Carabinieri Forestali Nuclei and the Aspromonte National Park, have thoroughly searched the main rivers as part of a powerful campaign of environmental controls directed by the Calabria Carabinieri Legion Command.

To guarantee the success of the Carabinieri's activity, the latest technological advances in the field of environmental crimes were also used. And so, through the use of special drones and photo traps installed at waste disposal sites, the military was able to locate and block 11 responsible for spills, preventing their actions from causing further damage to the local ecosystem.

In particular, in Polistena, two building contractors were caught pouring waste from their work into a bend of the Vacale stream. The two were reported to the Public Prosecutor's Office of Palmi, with the task of reclaiming the site where they had abandoned the special waste. Similarly, in Molochio, another building contractor was stopped while unloading rubble and other aggregates into the bed of the Cerasia stream, which is dry at this time of year.

Again, in Varapodio, an entrepreneur was reported for violating the rules for the disposal of industrial sludge, because he was caught pour sewage resulting from the processing of citrus fruits into the Marro river.

Lastly, the Carabinieri controls also focused on cases of abandonment of urban waste committed by private citizens in the municipalities of Anoia, where the Sciarapotamo stream flows, Taurianova, with the Razzà stream, and Terranova Sappo Minulio, where the Marro continues its his path. Numerous uncivilized people were caught in the act of disposing of their rubbish and 7 of them were reported to the judicial authorities.

Administered sanctions were also contested for all of the aforementioned, connected to the obligation to restore the environmental damage found.
Following these checks, the military proceeded to seize a large illegal landfill, built along the bed of the Razzà di Taurianova stream. The area, in which dangerous waste left over from construction works was found, including asbestos, plastics, bitumen, was entrusted to the custody of the Local Authority, which was immediately activated for the subsequent reclamation.