Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on January 14, 2025
1 min readLast updated: January 27, 2026
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Spanish police dismantled a gang smuggling 40,000 tons of Italian waste to Spain annually, involving 19 million euros in payments.
MADRID (Reuters) - Spanish police said on Tuesday they had apprehended a gang suspected of smuggling more than 40,000 tons a year of untreated urban waste from Italy to Spain.
In a statement, police said Italian waste treatment companies, which were not named, had paid smugglers over 19 million euros ($19.5 million) since 2021 to dispose of the waste, including hazardous and toxic materials.
The waste was mainly urban rubbish generated by Italian citizens, although it was mixed with other kinds of materials.
Fifteen people and seven companies are under investigation on suspicion of belonging to a criminal organisation, crimes against natural resources and the environment, and forgery.
"Even though the Italian companies had been contracted to manage the urban waste, they would divert its disposal to Spain in order to save costs, resulting in millions of euros in revenue at the expense of the Italian treasury," police said.
The gang set up a series of front companies, falsifying documents to make it look as though the waste had undergone treatments that were never carried out.
($1 = 0.9741 euros)
(Reporting by Emma Pinedo; editing by Charlie Devereux and Mark Heinrich)
The article discusses the dismantling of a gang smuggling Italian waste into Spain, highlighting environmental crimes.
The gang smuggled over 40,000 tons of untreated urban waste annually from Italy to Spain.
Fifteen people and seven companies are under investigation for their involvement in the smuggling operation.
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