Fossano, illicit waste management: 32 under investigation, two properties and 18 vehicles seized
The operation was carried out by the Carabinieri of Fossano in the provinces of Cuneo, Bergamo and Savona. The outcome of complex investigations led to 32 suspects, two seizures of real estate: an illegal farmhouse in Fossano, a company in Bene Vagienna and finally 18 vehicles seized for a total value of approximately 1.200.000.00 euros.
Fossano (Cuneo), illegal waste management: 32 investigated, two properties and 18 vehicles seized
This morningIn the provinces of Cuneo, Bergamo and Savona, i Carabinieri of the Fossano Company, supported by the branches of the territorially competent Provincial Commands, following complex and detailed investigations coordinated by the Public Prosecutor's Office of Cuneo, have executed a preventive seizure decree issued by the Preliminary Investigations Judge of the Court of Cuneo, at the request of the Public Prosecutor's Office and at the same time they notified the information of guarantee against 32 suspects (29 natural persons and 3 legal persons) held responsible, for various reasons, of environmental pollution crimes, illicit waste management and illegal landfill, as well as the offense relating to the administrative liability of legal persons.
The investigations, launched in December 2023 and conducted by the Operational Unit of the aforementioned Carabinieri Company, they allowed prove the operation of the suspects (4 Italians and 25 of African origin), active in a proven and systematic unauthorized waste management activity consisting of the collection, transport, storage, selection, volumetric reduction and sorting of dangerous and non-hazardous special waste (large quantities of end-of-life tyres, vehicle spare parts, industrial waste scraps, ferrous waste, WEEE, etc.), developed in a farmhouse without any authorization located in the Fossano countryside e in the yard of a shipping company in Bene Vagienna, also creating illegal landfills causing significant deterioration of the soil and subsoil.
Allowing us to reconstruct the modus operandi of the suspects who via vans not registered in the Environmental Managers Register they carried out an incessant waste tire collection activities (PFU) and other types of special waste from tire dealers and/or compliant companies in the Cuneo and Turin areas, to then transport them within the two logistics bases mentioned above, store them, select them, treat them illicitly and prepare them for shipment; they used the so-called method "dubbing" (i.e. the insertion of smaller ELTs inside larger ones), in order to deposit as many of them as possible within the work areas or load as much as possible into the containers; they acted synergistically with specific roles, using SIM cards registered in the name of other parties for telephone communications and collecting “untraceable” sums of money (in cash or via Postepay top-up) for the leasing of parts of the Fossano area to third parties; using excavators they frequently extracted from the ground in the yard of the Bene Vagienna company plastic and/or synthetic waste previously buried, probably with the aim of illicitly disposing of its contents, thus causing a significant and measurable compromise of the soil and subsoil.
Allowing the preventive seizure of the 2 logistics bases mentioned above and n. 18 vehicles used by the suspects, for a total value of approximately 1.200.000.00 euro.
This is an investigation carried out during the preliminary investigation phase, which is necessary therefore of the subsequent procedural verification in the cross-examination with the defence, all the more reason to underline that the Today's suspects must consider themselves innocent until a final conviction is issued against them.
The operation is part of the constant synergistic commitment in the territory of the Public Prosecutor's Office and the Carabinieri in activities to combat abusive conduct that is harmful to the environment and the ecosystem.
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