Italian mafia accused of starting wildfires and hindering fire crews

[emad]

. 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".

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


AUGUST is a wicked month.....

[glitch]

1. Italian Mafia isn't the only Mafia to use these tricks. Filthy garbage, all of them.

I shall pray for their enlightenment and try very hard not to hate them. :evilfrown: Ain't nothing easy.

[RandomKoolzip]

2. Mafia = Halliburton

Looks like either the mafia is taking a page from the Halliburton rulebook, or vice versa.