Officials suspect mafia ties in southern Italy's massive waste dump

摘要

Italian authorities are continuing to investigate a field in southern Italy after two jailed mafia informants said it was a secret site where the Camorra organized crime organization had long buried toxic waste. The site in the region of Campania, near Naples, is suspected to have earned billions of dollars for the mafia since the early 1990s and could contain as much as 10 million tons of toxic trash, according to one environmental group. "We're living on top of a bomb," said Alfredo Mazza, a doctor who published a 2004 study in the British medical journal The Lancet showing a rise in cancer cases in the area. Decades of deals between manufacturers, corrupt local officials and the mafia have plagued the region with improperly disposed waste.