Italian mafia accused of starting wildfires and hindering fire crews - Guardian

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Source: The Guardian

Italian mafia accused of starting wildfires and hindering fire crews

· Official says blazes help mob create building zones
· Attacks on radio beacon and helicopter add to fears

Tom Kington in Rome
Thursday August 9, 2007
The Guardian

Suspicions that many of the hundreds of fires sweeping Italy
this summer were started by organised crime were heightened
when a firefighting helicopter was reportedly shot at and
saboteurs attacked a communications beacon used by
firefighters near Naples.

The helicopter was hovering over the Volturno river in the
Campania region on Monday when the large canister suspended
below it for scooping up water was hit by 18 bullets, according
to operators. On the same day the wiring at a radio beacon in
nearby Irpinia used for firefighter communications was ripped
out.

"There is a clearly an offensive under way, presumably organised
by the powerful Casalesi Camorra clan," a regional government
official, Corrado Gabriele, told Il Giornale. "Behind these simple
fires hides a business worth millions, with the Camorra aiming to
create new zones for building," he added.

The infrastructure minister, Antonio Di Pietro, compared the
situation to "the wild west, or worse", and called for the army to
be sent in to boost security. The environment minister, Alfonso
Pecoraro Scanio, said the fires were a "real criminal assault on
the country's parks and other areas ... by people linked to
organised crime groups and illicit construction"

-snip-

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/italy/story/0,,2144554,00.html