Police break up gang smuggling Italian waste into Spain

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)

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