Toxic Mafias: Making Billions On Our Waste | Criminal Planet

International organized crime has no natural predator crime syndicates are expanding and forging alliances across the globe [Music] they as law enforcement struggle to stop them up to 5% of the global economy is now in criminal hands I'm Paul Radu and for the past 20 years I have invested instigated International organized crime in the tune of 400 billion and this is a very very small slice of what's really going on I think there are some people let's go let's go in this series I'm working with a team of reporters around the world are you angry with yourself for being part of this to discover how a generation of international gangs are redrawing the criminal [Music] map Naples is the home of Italy's largest and oldest Mafia the comora for decades they've used extreme violence to force businesses to pay millions in extortion and have infiltrated most parts of the economy to laer money made from International drug trafficking but the kamora have also pioneered a new form of trafficking profiting from the 11 billion tons of waste we produce every year it's an inordinate amount and it's no surprise that a third of that waste is being disposed of in unsafe or even illegal ways have come to Italy to meet the people who are suffering in the system and to meet the mafia making billions out of disposing waste illegally to understand how the kamora turned garbage into gold you have to go back to the 199 '90s as they expanded their International drug trafficking business the kamur assassinated anyone who stood in their way in 1994 Naples declared a state of emergency not because of the escalating homicide rates but because of a waste crisis when the state hastily issued contracts to new waste disposal companies the kamora spotted a new lucrative business venture [Music] over the last 30 years operating behind front companies the kamora have won profitable waste contracts from heavy industry across Italy they've dumped millions of tons in Naples and the surrounding region of campia just got a call from one of the contributors that I was hoping to speak to here in Naples he saying that there are fires right now burning and he's asked me to go to him immed immediately to see exactly what's going on when the Cur dump a new load of illegal waste they often cover their tracks by burning it I can see it yeah it's over there well they show is a perfect place to dump right it's it's very difficult to get to it's in between like a Spaghetti Junction of Highways it it can go unnoticed um for quite some time um but I can see the smoke [Music] billowing what about the waist are they are they dumping stuff and burning it there's a fire okay we're going to go and see now hold on tight should we just try on foot cuz we're not going to be able to drive up to it so it looks like the fire people have just put the fire out it's absolutely gigantic it's huge the ground is still smoldering [Music] whenever there's a problem that governments fail to solve organized crime comes in and finds opportunity this garbage needed to be moved and they've already built the infrastructure over the years to move anything from drugs to humans to weapons this was a way to legitimize to ler money and the quantity of waste that's constantly growing would become in itself a great source of Revenue it was a win-win situation for them of course they will not try to get rid of the waste in a proper way because that is very very expensive so by not actually investing in the treatment of the waste they make a lot of money because they get paid by the waste generator ERS and they bury it or they just dump it there's almost no penalty for trafficking of waste it's very low risk it's high returns it's great business for the [Music] mafia excuse me how often are you doing this I don't even know what I'm breathing in the air here is toxic the land's been destroyed they've dumped whatever they've wanted to and now I'm covered in trafficked trash Ash and it's just such an awful smell and taste in the back of my throat you can't even imagine local resident Eno has been been documenting the devastation caused by the kamora can you tell me what's happened here how big was the fire and what were they burning the there are laws regulating the disposal of hazardous substances but there's little profit in following costly treatment procedures so the kamora simply dumped the waste and their toxins enabling them to undercut their [Music] competitors oh my God this is here [Music] fires started by the kamora are so commonplace that the region is now known as the land of fires what's the hardest thing for you when you see something like this [Music] I'm just spending a few hours here but Enzo and a lot of people have to live in this this is completely part of their lives and I can't even begin to kind of understand what it must take how angry you must feel to know that this goes on and nobody's [Music] watching the koraa have dumped waste in thousands of illegal sites across Campana arsenic Asbestos and dangerous heavy metals leak into local drinking water people's food and the air they breathe the illegal waste trade earns the kamora billions of Euros a [Music] year I've come to meet an ex kamur boss who was involved in setting up this dirty business hi after serving a 20-year sentence nsio broke the kora's Code of Silence the OM and became a state informant he now lives with a price on his head what did you have to do to get to that rank I mean was there violence involved yes how did you even get involved in trash [Music] trafficking how did you justify that to yourself like you know this trash is toxic do you remember what you were thinking you're 20 30 years old what were you thinking when you were doing this yeah Nuno claims heavy industry knew the kamur were not disposing of the waste safely and politicians and judges were paid off to avoid enforcing environmental laws what happened to this an alliance of Clans with over 4,500 foot soldiers the kamora exert control over campia through violence Nuno left this area years ago and is fearful of Retribution on his return it's nunia nunia Nuno hello he's scared so you see yes okay we will be careful okay he's already out of his car he's gone ahead um so what are we looking at what's what is over here [Music] and what would you dump here what sort of things do you remember putting into the [Music] ground radio ET ET Nuno what is this doing to the people that live in those houses you're so angry at what's happened here are you angry with yourself for being part of this okay okay let's go come on let's go I think this is too much now Nuno cannot know who will get sick from the waste he dumped but the region of Campania does have the highest cancer mortality rate in Italy an area 25 km north of Naples became known as the triangle of death this is where the kamora dumped most of their waste over the last few decades there have been alarmingly high levels of leukemia amongst Children Here Maria copoli lives in a nearby town with the highest child mortality rate in Italy her son Antonio developed a cancerous brain tumor aged just nine one year of chemotherapy could not save [Music] him [Applause] Michael [Music] [Music] for [Music] we [Music] God local priest Don patrello has seen a large number of children from the town die from cancers usually associated with the [Music] elderly the people here have endured Decades of violence from the kamora now their toxic waste trade is harming children they're turning against the kamora and the politicians they've come to the streets today as the minister of the environment Sergio Costa is in town to launch a cleanup project being in 2014 and 15 the EU fined the Italian government millions of Euros for their continued failure to tackle the toxic waste this is obviously a big deal for the local community and there's lots of newspapers and journalists why are you doing this because every night we breef tox care from fire this is not possible okay but we're talking to him I'm just doing my job okay thank you do you think that this is going to change anything not useful this is not concrete just a manifestation to show to the world the terrible situation of this part of the world we are alone [Music] we follow the minister to his next event people here have little faith in politicians to tackle the kamora they've corrupted local politicians judges and the police over many decades [Music] [Music] foree just waiting for the minister the people today were very uh vocal they were very loud they seem to be speaking from a pain that's deep inside them that is the visible part of the problem the toxic chemicals the ill health of the local community the air the food this is going to take decades to solve but you're fighting the trafficers they are the kamora they are the mafia how can you fight them tracing the kamora's cash is not easy the police have seized their luxury mansions and millions of Euros in assets but over many decades the Cur have permeated the local economy laundering and hiding their money in agriculture restaurants supermarkets even car Parks seizing the billions the Cur make would mean tearing apart the fabric of napes society I've come back to meet local activist Enzo working with anti-ia group libera Enzo is is now transforming confiscated kamora properties for the [Music] community what does it say with the mafia practically next door I'm not surprised Enzo has installed [Music] CCTV that sounds like a plan the culture war is now working after years of public pressure the kamora is finally starting to bend trafficking the majority of its waste overseas their image was badly tainted because people realized that the camora was doing something that was detrimental to their health so this is why they wanted to put some distance between what they were collecting in Italy and The Dumping grounds the kamora is trafficking waste to countries with weaker environmental controls exporting the illness they've rought on their own Community I've come to meet Italy's Finance police the Guardia def financer who work closely with Customs on average 300,000 containers come through here every year the kamora falsify paperwork and corrupt some Port officials to ensure the waste gets through undetected tenente is this coming for [Music] SC [Music] you two agree that this looks dodgy it looks like it could be traffic waste yes traffic okay I'm going to stand back and I'm going to watch you do your job why did they put a car in here it seems that one person's waste is another person's profit is this a mixture of personal belongings and things that they want to sell commercially is it designed to hide the truth that this is trafficking yes yes I mean it can't get more Italian than trying to bribe folks with wine and pasta yes it's full of trash yes just waste oh oh the good stuff better what do you see a mini a mini coopa car I'm in the container right now and I just cuz there's no way the cameras going be able to get up here but there's a Mini Cooper there's mattresses there's absolutely countless bits of uh tires TVs they've even remembered to bring in the kitchen sink I mean it's ridiculous in 2017 the trafficking of waste became an even more lucrative business China who used to recycle 50% of the world's waste banned All Foreign imports this opened the way for the kamur to expand their International Network it's estimated they trafficed thousands of tons of waste into Eastern Europe much of it arrives in Romania which has been dubbed the Dustbin of Europe [Music] the mafias like to invest in countries where the rule of law is weaker where there's easier to to bribe where there's poverty because for them again crisis situations are opportunities and Romania is one of those you see people in the local governments people in the environmental agency officials in the borders so they really corrupt all across cross they create a trail of corruption that serves them while the citizens are victims of all of this when you go to Transylvania where I grew up and you see garbage dumped you know on these mountainous slopes in the in the forests it's it's sad because you realize how much the changes places I've come to beo County in Romania where trucks illegally dumped 700 tons of waste from Italy behind the farm local journalist Adriana is investigating the case here it is it's just ripped up clothes I see clothes and I see I don't know plastics it's rotting yes smells terrible it looks like this came from like an industrial yes definely industrial what does it say a company in Italy and it has the Italy address this is made in Italy so they're hiding it they' put these bales of hay on either side so no one can see it they knew how to hide this waste here then you no one comes here by foot do you want to see what it looks like with a drone to get up so we can actually see up [Music] top it it's just vast much more than I thought you see it from the A and you see the big disaster yeah how did this happen the papers suggested that it came from Italy to be recycled here but we do not have a recycled fabric here so it was clear this waste was brought here to be abandoned this case is currently being investigated by the Romanian authorities we follow the Trail East to clug on the edge of one of the country's largest landfills local artist ishan discovered very similar waste all this here is Italian waste and how long has it been here it was exactly the same month when the mafia connected Italian waste was brought to beor County the thing that's really remarkable is how similar they are the consistency the shape the size all match it's been established officially that it came from Italy but actually they have papers only for the quarter of the quantity but nobody cares so wait so so there's more than there should be here yeah of course ACC according to ishan a fraction of the waste was declared on the official paperwork the majority is undisclosed unregulated and unsafe and has simply been added to the 2,500 tons left to rot at P ishan wants to show me the scale of the problem here sorry his uniform says he's working for the local Administration what did he say do I care about my dog he's threatening your dog yes every time I come here I end up in getting in trouble because always they are threatening me threatening my dog threatening whatever there's a pack of barking dogs in a very angry man with a stick this is a very good spot to see uh the whole of [Music] moror the waste is five stories high and been described as an environmental ticking Time [Music] Bomb the EU has demanded Pet's closure after giving millions of Eur to help build a new waste disposal plant which is still not fully operational almost a decade later the biggest Crow colony in Europe feeding on the dump yes there hundreds of crows there yes thousands of crows yes this is such a total catastrophe is the land here toxic yes highly toxic there are even paper evidences that they dumped several 10 tons of heavy metal and the heavy metal concentrations are like thousand times like the top alert level and this is on their official documents and still they never did anything about it thousands of the Roma Community live right next to the dump with little access to running water and electricity The Dumping of international unregulated waste is further polluting their home racism is really hardcore in Romania and the people that we love to hate the most are the Roma this is exposing thousands of people to hardcore toxicity isan has introduced me to Pepe from the local Roma Community Pepe they're all your dogs all right we got an on tourage now it's good that's so nice they made like a little a with their hands I mean children play with whatever they have you know here in the community there no Park what kind of problems do you have from living so close to the dump it's like living close to a nuclear plant I mean you are constantly bombarded with pollution that comes out from the rotten garbage the smell makes you sick in the stomach and most of the people develop cancer really fast first the the old ones was developing uh respiratory problems stomach problems and liver problems and also rushes and all kinds of stuff you know I I don't know the what caused this because we were trying to get the local authorities to make test and to tell us if this area is polluted or not for 10 years they didn't say nothing this year the city council admitted that the P area is really hard polluted so they needed 10 to to ad the European commission has now started legal action against Romania for their mismanagement to 15 landfills including pet but they've done little to tackle The Italian mafias who run the trade this is dirty business it's business that you know governments can't really solve there are very few treatment facilities in in Eastern Europe that can deal with you know large volumes of of garbage and the mafia just um taking advantage of that situation while governments look the other way the high rewards of this trade has attracted an even bigger fish Italy's most powerful Mafia the indr they're trafficking far more dangerous waste on an even bigger scale in 2005 a former foot soldier claimed the andang had sunk ships loaded with radioactive waste into the Mediterranean Sea Declassified Italian SE service documents suggested it could be as many as 50 ships it triggered worldwide investigations by prosecutors police and journalists which are still ongoing today I've come to Calabria the region the indang has controlled with Terror and violence for decades no one knows this more acutely than journalist mik albanes he was awarded Italy's highest Accolade the honor of Merit for his exposes on the inrang it must be him with his two body C Mel I'm glad that we could talk I want to understand your situation right now what is life for you like every day why are you so calm if I was you I'd be a ball of nerves Thea does seem to be taking trash trafficking to a whole new level how did they [Music] operate to the andanga to gain notoriety after kidnapping the grandson of the world's richest man John pauletti III in 1973 a multi-million dollar Ransom was paid when they delivered his severed ear to a national newspaper since then they've grown to be the world's most powerful criminal organization with a presence in 31 countries drugs arms toxic waste and even embezzlement of EU funds earns them billions of Euros a year p an alliance of calabrian families bonded by Blood Ties the andanga are impossible to infiltrate if one family is arrested another takes their place there's almost no country where you don't have Netta presence they were the first to Syndicate crime so they got to that level where you know they don't really have to you know kill people anymore because others will will do that for them they can Syndicate drug trafficking they can provide the financial services through the banks that they own so they're more like a criminal logistics company right now that gives the other criminal groups the tools the software the the contacts the political corruption to carry on with the business and they sit back and take a cut of that I've come to meet prosecutor Alexander DOI who for the last 20 years has been trying to bring the andanga to [Music] [Music] Justice which other Industries are Thea in how successful are you um in in getting these inanga mafia members in prison are you in danger FAL [Music] top anti-af prosecutor Falcone was assassinated in a Car Bomb by the costra mafia in 1992 the threat for prosecuted DOI still looms [Music] large a lot of responsibility on your should [Music] shoulders the inanga now make billions of Euros a year from the toxic waste trade it's ultimately about these people imposing their will and imposing their criminal culture onto populations on places on towns and this is what what very very damaging to everybody ultimately cuz it's it's like a cancer that keeps on growing and growing unless people see waste as a healthcare emergency groups like The dretta will only be more [Music] successful [Music] now

Channel: VICE

Views: 199,300

Keywords: documentary, documentaries, docs, interview, culture, lifestyle, world, exclusive, independent, underground, videos, journalism, vice guide, vice.com, vice, vice magazine, vice mag, vice videos, film, short films, movies, criminal planet, vice criminal planet, italy, italian mafia, sopranos, camorra, vice camorra, camorra mafia, camorra news 2023, camorra toxic waste, crime, camorra crimes, italian mafia crime, mafia crime, mafia, martin scorsese, vice mafia, crime family, crime syndicate

Id: UC26ime5zJY

Length: 43min 46sec (2626 seconds)

Published: Tue Nov 14 2023