Two important operations conducted by the Carabinieri of Gioia Tauro led to the denunciation of four people and the seizure of goods and structures involved in illegal activities. The operations, aimed at combating environmental and property crimes, made it possible to dismantle a series of situations that put the environment, public health and the economic resources of the area at risk.
The first concerned a private villawhere the military discovered an illegal connection to the electricity grid. The stolen energy was used both for housing and to power a machine shop, causing a significant economic damage, estimated at approximately 70,000 euros. During the inspection, the military also located a illegal carpentry in an adjacent property to the villa, which operated without the necessary authorizations and without respecting environmental regulations. The laboratory was equipped with a painting oven without a purifier, and the chemicals released into the environment they represented a danger to health and the surrounding ecosystem. Furthermore, inside the carpentry shop they were found special and dangerous wastesuch as solvents, paint cans and waste materials. The structure was immediately seized and the owner reported for violations of environmental laws and for the theft of electricity.
At the same time, the carabinieri activated another intervention control in the rural areas surrounding the Budello river, where they surprised two people while abandoning dangerous waste on agricultural land. Parts of bodywork, ferrous material and industrial processing waste were found among the illegally dumped materials. All this constituted a threat to the quality of the soil and water of the river, with serious risks of contamination that could have compromised the local ecosystem. The two responsible were identified and reported for the crime of abandoning hazardous waste.