Florence, from the early hours of the morning the soldiers of the Carabinieri, directed and delegated by the District Anti-Mafia Prosecutor's Office of Florence and under the coordination of the National Anti-Mafia Prosecutor's Office and Anti-terrorism, they are carrying out a massive operation in Tuscany, Calabria and Umbria for the execution of an order for the application of precautionary measures issued by the GIP of the Court of the Tuscan capital. The crimes contested range from aggravated criminal association to mafia facilitation, to organized activities for the illicit trafficking of waste to environmental pollution and the prevention of control by administrative and judicial bodies. As part of the operation, called "KEU" (from the name of the final aggregate deriving from the treatment of sludge produced from leather tanning waste), 6 precautionary custody measures were carried out (one in prison and five under house arrest) , 7 precautionary measures banning entrepreneurial activity, 2 preventive seizures of waste management plants and over 60 searches. A seizure order was also carried out for the equivalent of over 20 million euros and numerous personal and home searches and inspections were carried out at over 50 targets in the provinces of Florence, Pisa, Arezzo, Crotone, Terni and Perugia.
130 Forestry Carabinieri, 40 Carabinieri from the Environmental Protection and Ecological Transition Command, soldiers from the Judicial Police Section of Florence and the territorially competent Provincial Commands are involved in the operation, supported by the 4th Helicopter Nucleus of Pisa.
The investigation, which lasted for almost 3 years and as a result of which 19 people have been investigated so far (including political representatives and managers of public bodies), was conducted on behalf of the District Attorney's Office Anti-mafia of Florence, by the Carabinieri of the NIPAAF of the CC Forestry Group of Florence, of the Ecological Operational Unit of Florence and of the Judicial Police Section of the Florence Prosecutor's Office.
Started in May 2018, the activity, conducted using traditional methods and with the support of sophisticated technical and telematic activities, concerned the management of waste, specifically industrial wastewater and sludge, produced in the tanning district located between the provinces of Pisa and from Florence.
Some individuals at the top of the Tanners' Association of Santa Croce sull'Arno represent the decision-making fulcrum of the entire apparatus under investigation, which acts with the methods and awareness of an association organized for the commission of crimes, using for this purpose the various consortia that make up, each in its own role, the circuit of the sector itself. What has been created over the years is a real system which involves the Tanners Association of Santa Croce and some individual consortia.
The leather tanning industrial sector represents a sector of particular environmental risk for the production of waste, the illicit management of which causes consequences in terms of contamination of the receiving bodies into which the waste is delivered, but also contamination of the soils in which the waste is reused. waste, fictitiously recovered or subjected to insufficient management procedures.
The investigations have highlighted how the mechanism built over the years, which should have ensured practically total recycling of the waste produced by the sector, with substantially residual landfill disposal, does not in fact achieve the result of obtaining a cycle that effectively recovers the waste and lawfully.
In particular, it emerged that the waste deriving from the treatment of sludge from the purification of tannery wastewater treated by the Aquarno industrial complex, and called "KEU", consisted of ash which had concentrations of pollutants such that it could not be reused for recovery in construction activities of filling of embankments or environmental restoration, and instead they were sent to a recycled materials production plant which mixed this waste with other inert materials and classified it as a raw material for construction, so as to be used in various sites in the area with real danger of contamination of soil and groundwater. Furthermore, other critical issues emerged regarding the discharge of purified water operated by the same "Aquarno" purifier which pours inadequately purified water into the receiving body, the Usciana canal. Even the processing phase of exhausted chrome presented significant critical issues, being marketed after treatment, as a raw material despite not having the requirements, and remaining a real waste.
Of particular importance is the fact that the owner of the illegal treatment plant for recycled materials Lerose Francesco was in close contact with criminal circles of the Gallace gang, who had taken control of the earthmoving subcontract for the construction of the fifth lot of the SRT 429 Empoli. Thanks to these contacts and infiltrations, approximately 8000 tons of contaminated waste appear to have been illegally disposed of in the highway embankments.
This episode constitutes the investigative link between the investigation called "KEU" and the investigation carried out by the ROS carabinieri called "CALATRURIA", since through the Mugello company Cantini Marino, infiltrated by members of the Gallace gang, it was possible to reconstruct by the ROS the control of earth movement in the contract for lot V of the SRT 429 with extortionist conduct, and at the same time it was possible to reconstruct by the Forestry CC and the Ecological Nucleus CC the collaboration provided by Lerose Francesco to the Cantini company with the supply of huge quantities of contaminated waste illegally disposed of as a background or for the works carried out under the public contract.
It was also verified that the economic weight of the sector allows its representatives to have direct contacts that go beyond normal institutional relations with the political and administrative leaders of several local public bodies, which in various capacities would have substantially facilitated the system, some of whom are among those under investigation.
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