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Mafia Link To Radioactive Waste Dumped In Mediterranean

by Annina Bergman | September 16, 2009 at 01:58 pm

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An unmarked wreck full of radioactive waste was found in the Mediterranen, off the coast of Italy, on Saturday. Prosecutor Bruno Giordano stated that the ship may be proof that the mafia has been sinking nuclear waste for money.

The wreck is located 18 miles (30km) off the south-west coast of Italy - exactly where Francesco Fonti, a former member of the Calabrian mafia said it would be found three years ago. Fonti told police his mafia, 'Ndrangheta, blew up and sunk the ship Cunsky, which was carrying 120 barrels of nuclear waste from Norway, in 1993. He said they received $165,000 for disposing of the toxic waste.

Investigators believe up to 41 other ships may have been used for the same purpose.

Pictures of the wreckage have shown barrels marked with yellow signs indicating toxic or nuclear substances, and the ship's drums show signs of having been blown up in an explosion. The contents of the barrels are currently being examined.

Fonti told the daily Il Manifesto he believed that Ilaria Alpi, a TV journalist, and her cameraman were shot dead in 1994 because they had seen toxic waste unloaded in the Somalian port of Bosaso.