When one thinks of environmental crimes, the mind usually goes to poaching, the fires caused, the contamination of the factories ,. “Waste trafficking has become the highest priority in Europe within environmental crimes,” contrasts Pedro Garrido (Vitoria, 39 years old), group head in the Environmental Operating Unit (UCOMA) of the Y, since this year, responsible for this type of investigations, an increasingly specialized body in this area.
Ask. One of the seprona missions is to prevent pollution in the environment. What place does the fight against illegal waste have there?
Answer. A predominant place. At European level, waste traffic is the highest priority in the fight against environmental crime. Criminal organizations have found a point of economic opportunity in illegal waste traffic. Both in what is called and intra -community traffic, within the European Union, and in traffic especially abroad, mainly in Asia and Africa. They have seen this economic opportunity because in Europe the regulations are harmonized, but prices do not. If you get cheaper to eliminate the residue elsewhere, you skip the norm, normally by falsifying documents, to eliminate it in other places where it is cheaper and get greater profit margin and earn more money.
P. What requirements does the legal transport of waste between countries have?
R. It is quite specific, it depends on the type of waste and there are dozens of types. Urban, plastic waste and others can be taken to another country if they are valuable, that is, if you can get a game and get something, such as raw materials, or sell it. And it has the condition that they must be accepted by the country to which they are sent. Where is the illegal? That the document that accompanies the merchandise does not really reflect what it is: if there is a merchandise that is not usable, it is exported, but with falsified documentation.
P. Is it difficult to detect?
R. Of course, there are hundreds of thousands of tons, and the difficult thing is to detect what illegal export is. Imagine enormous containers that are transported by sea: in the front they can be loaded with that legal, exportable residue, but everything behind is loaded with what would be uninforrative. The detection is frankly difficult.
P. Why do illegal waste usually reach?
R. Normally, the export of illegal residue is done by boat or by trucks, by plane is very expensive. And mainly comes from Italy and France. That residue that is not valuable must be eliminated by the principle of proximity: each one has to eliminate what has produced, and there is the documentary falsification that occurs to be able to export it here to Spain. It would never be legal to bring garbage to throw it to a landfill: if it is not valued, it should be eliminated in the country of origin.
P. What type of waste are the ones who try to get rid of illegally?
R. The most common that are importing to Spain are urban waste and textile is also increasing. Then electronic waste is very referred to Africa.
P. Are there problems with plastics?
R. Yes, within the urban residue the plastic would be of the main problems. The plastic bags is very difficult to get an valuation, and end in Spain illegally.
P. And the most hazardous waste?
R. All those who have chemical composition, from radioactive to phytosanitary. If they are not given due treatment, they end up dissolving with the environment.
P. Is there any trend in waste traffic?
R. The main route of illegal waste is France and Italy, both by boat and by truck, so the entrance areas would be ports of Valencia and Barcelona and the French border. And then the elimination is done in emptied Spain, where we are detecting that the landfills are: Aragon, Castilla-La Mancha, Castilla-León … the difficulty is that landfills can be legal. The illicit would be that the documentation that accompanies the merchandise has changed in the importation, it goes to a treatment plant where no action is done on that residue and the documentation is changed and, without having treated it, it becomes a valued residue and then to residue for its elimination.
P. In January they dismantled, in May another that did the same from Italy and Portugal. Is Spain the landfill in Europe?
R. Being the different price in each country, those countries where the treatment than in Spain, such as France and Italy, imports those waste illegally and ends here is much more expensive. We are burying in landfills in Spain a lot of garbage that is not ours, but from Italy and France.
P. How do this type of operations usually start?
R. The most common would be truck detection, through inspections. When it is seen that the residue does not fit with what was declared, it would be an administrative infraction, but the Ucoma analyzes a lot of information and when it is detected that it begins to be repeated (the place of completion, the company, the treatment plant, the driver) we see that it is not an isolated case, but something that would fit in the criminal type of the crime of environmental unit in which it speaks of the illicit traffic of waste. We also have the possibility that through Europol we get information from Italy or France of companies that could be dedicated to this. From there, if we detect that there is an activity that could be illegal, we started an in -depth investigation, which are very durable. There are usually criminal organizations behind and you have to see who gives the orders, where the money is going, people involved …
P. Are there mafias specialized in this type of crime?
R. There are organized criminal groups, with a hierarchy, bosses, steps, some that give orders, others that obtain the benefits, others that manage it, others that are dedicated to the documentation, a logistics apparatus … In the case of Italy, the information they give us is that it is linked to some kind of mafia there, but we do not have that definition of mafia. They are stable criminal organizations in time and are obtaining a benefit of an illegal activity.
P. Have they been perfected over the years?
R. Yes. Before the importation could simply be and throw the waste illegally or bury it in illegal landfills. Now the difficulties are in the use of legal companies with a legal network that are being captured by these criminal organizations offering them greater benefits for bringing a residue that will not be treated. These legal companies are importing legal residue while another illegal.
P. When money moves this crime a year in Spain?
R. It is very difficult to know. In the recent investigation of Italy, the illegal economic benefit was 17 million euros; In a previous 2023, about 14. It is an activity that generates many illegal economic benefits. In each of both operations 40,000 tons of waste were moved per year and more than 100,000 in three years. And then there are also smaller operations
P. For many years the waste from Europe to China was sent, but this country closed its borders. Where do our waste go now?
R. They changed to the countries of Southeast Asia: Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam, Türkiye, India, Pakistan. The rule to send them to third countries is that they have to accept them; They may have done it and then give it a fraudulent use. There comes the documentary falsehood, which is key.
P. Have you detected fires caused in landfills to get rid of waste?
R. Yes. There are fires in the nights that supposedly arise spontaneously. Recently there was an investigation in Castellón in which a person who imported a lot of textile residue was investigated (which was supposedly second -hand) and had it in a ship. He was charged because they were waste. And three weeks later the ship caught fire. If you turn on, do not spend on the treatment. In this case it has been linked to previous investigation.
