Crime gang in €16m recycling scam
Mafia show ‘where there’s muck, there’s brass’
GANGSTERS stole cardboard and paper from recycling bins in Madrid to ship to the Far East and enjoy a €10 million payday.
Police made 42 arrests in the capital after an undercover operation involving the Guardia Civil, local police, Europol, and Spain’s central prosecuting unit for environmental crime.
The scam was operated by a fake waste management company collecting paper and cardboard from council-owned bins across Madrid - more than 67,000 tonnes of waste was mixed with legitimate recycling and shipped to South East Asia; mainly to China, India, Indonesia and South Korea.
Police swooped and as well as the arrests seized 11 rubbish lorries. Officers held three Spaniards, the remainder were of Romanian origin - they face charges including crimes against the environment, criminal damage and money laundering.
Detectives working as part of Operation Hartie - ‘Hartie’ is Romanian for ‘paper’ discovered that 278 illicit shipments were made by a “well-structured criminal network” since 2015; the estimated loss to Madrid city authorities was
€16 million.
Madrid police investigating the theft from recycling bins in the street alerted Seprona, the environmental wing of the Guardia Civil, and an investigation was launched at the end of January 2019.
Officers discovered 18 ‘routes’ around city streets used by the gang and watched the blue containers being targeted by the gang on a street by street operation.
One later told the Spanish media: “Chamartín, Retiro and Calle de Alcalá were the most juicy areas for the gang; they were the areas with the most trade and, sometimes they went twice a day to empty the bins.”
Undercover officers photographed gang members climbing in and out of the bins to collect the rubbish for the illicit recycling.
And it was revealed the three Spanish national arrested allegedly ran the recycling plant where the stolen paper and cardboard was unloaded - some 9,300 tonnes in the first six months of 2019 alone.
Detectives working on the case also said one of the gang’s collection trucks was torched last year by rivals after straying out of the accepted routes in an apparent turf war.
A spokesman for Europol said European Union regulations established strict procedures for the transport of waste between member states and countries outside the EU. “The surveillance and control of such shipments ensure the protection and preservation of the environment.”
He said Europol facilitated the exchange of information between national authorities and experts crosschecked information against databases, providing analytical support to the Spanish police.
An EU report has identified organised in Italy playing 'a significant role' in the waste management industry.