Waste traffic gang busted

(ANSA) - MILAN, OCT 20 - Italian police on Tuesday busted an alleged gang trafficking waste across northern Italy.
    The Carabinieri NOE special unit said the alleged gang had illegally disposed of some 24,000 tonnes of waste from various facilities in northern Italy.
    The gang is accused of illicit waste trafficking and setting up illegal dumps in Piedmont, Lombardy, Veneto and Friuli Venezia Giulia.
    Several arrests and seizures of property were made.
    Some 400 police officers fanned out across northern Italy.
    The police operation was based in Milan.
    NOE acted with other environmental police units, sources said.
    Illegal waste trafficking and dumping is a major problem in Italy, and one of the prime sources of mafia profits.
    Vast amounts of sometimes toxic waste are trafficked and disposed of each year.
    The Camorra mafia specializes in taking toxic waste from northern industrial heartlands and dumping it in Campania.
    (ANSA).