Mafia Big in Anti-Enviroment Business

[The Sushi Bandit]

http://www.corriere.it/english/articoli/2004/04_Aprile/07/Mafia_environment.shtml

The number of crimes committed by what the Italian media has dubbed the "eco-Mafia" soared 33 per cent last year and the value of business rose to € 20 billion

ROME - The Mafia's enviromentally dangerous businesses - including hazardous waste disposal, illegal constructions and animal trafficking - enjoyed a boom year in 2003, a new report said on Tuesday. The number of crimes committed by what the Italian media has dubbed the "eco-Mafia" soared 33 percent last year and the value of business rose to € 20 billion, leading environmental group Legambiente said in its annual study of the racket. "Today, the direct role that Mafia organisations have in the looting of the environmental and cultural heritage of our country, especially in the south, is a fact," the group's president, Roberto Della Seta, said.