Mafia Sinks Ships Containing Toxic Waste

Hugh Pickens writes "For years there have been rumors that the mafia was sinking ships with nuclear and other waste on board as part of a money-making racket. Now, BBC reports on a sunken vessel that has been found 30km off the coast of Italy. Murky pictures taken by a robot camera show the vessel intact, and alongside it are a number of yellow barrels with labels indicating the contents are toxic. The ship's location was revealed by Francesco Fonti, an ex-member of Calabria's feared 'Ndrangheta crime group, who confessed to using explosives to sink this vessel and two others as part of an illegal operation to bypass rules on the disposal of toxic waste. Experts are now examining samples taken from the wreck, and an official says that if the samples prove to be radioactive then a search for up to 30 other sunken vessels believed scuttled by the mafia would begin immediately. 'The Mediterranean is 0.7 percent of the world's seas. If in this tiny portion there are more than 30 (toxic waste) shipwrecks, imagine what there could be elsewhere,' says Silvestro Greco, head of Calabria's environment agency."

Comments

Re:No moral fibre

[TechForensics]

Fuck. Me. I sometimes wonder what it must be like to be a person with no moral fibre at all. I can't imagine it, must be weird.

My wife's a psychologist and we have discussed such people. The answer to what it's like to be one is depressingly simple. They have no morals to trouble them at all; no conscience, no guilt. They're happy as if they had ethics and compassion.

There are people who are simply not like us; just not the same.

Obligatory film tip: Gomorra

[photonic]

To get a good impression of 'Ndrangheta's involvement with toxic waste, go see Gomorra. Excellent movie, even though it is somewhat depressing to realize that is based on reality.

Re:How do they get approved by the EPA?

[cusco]

For years one of Haiti's largest industries was the receiving of waste too toxic for even the most high-tech of US processors to handle. Of course that was one of Baby Doc's businesses, and equally obviously there was no waste-processing facility adequate for the task in Haiti, but that never stopped DOW or any of the other mega-corps that paid them to take the stuff away. The EPA only cares if the waste is going to be disposed of in the US, if it's going elsewhere they don't really care much. Their responsibility stops at the edge of their jurisdiction. I rather suspect that most of the European environmental bureaucracies function much the same, with exceptions for obvious issues like acid rain.

Re:Does not surprise

[CRCulver]

A friend of mine went to italy and he says it was NOT worth it. There is so much crime, and even the "honest" shopkeeps constantly overcharge you

Usually overcharging says more about the tourist than about the shopkeeper. Some people invite getting fleeced by being douchebags. I travel most of the year and have covered about half the globe already, and I'm never overcharged. That's probably because I learn some of the local language, stick to local norms of courtesy, and do some basic research instead of just being a blatant, obnoxious and naïve foreigner.

Re:Corporations and the Mafia

[masonc]

A few years ago, Royal Caribbean cruise line was found by the US coastguard to have fitted bilge bypass valves on their ships, allowing them to dump oily bilge water at sea with being detected, or so they thought. They were fined heavily for this. They didn't just do it as an afterthought or by accident, they intentionally refitted the ship to be able to do it, meaning the corporation actively intended to pollute the waters they were making their living from. Maybe the scale is different, but the intent is the same.