Cetraro ( Calabrian: ) is a town and ''

comune A (; : , ) is an administrative division of Italy, roughly equivalent to a township or municipality. It is the third-level administrative division of Italy, after regions () and provinces (). The can also have the City status in Italy, titl ...

'' in the province of Cosenza in the

Calabria Calabria is a Regions of Italy, region in Southern Italy. It is a peninsula bordered by the region Basilicata to the north, the Ionian Sea to the east, the Strait of Messina to the southwest, which separates it from Sicily, and the Tyrrhenian S ...

region of southern

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

Waste dumping

The

'Ndrangheta The 'Ndrangheta (, , ) is a mafia-type organized crime, criminal syndicate originating from the Calabria region of Italy. Gratteri & Nicaso, ''Fratelli di Sangue'', pp. 65–68 This body, also referred to as the Commission in reference to the ...

, an Italian mafia syndicate, has been accused by

pentito ''Pentito'' (; lit. "repentant"; plural: ''pentiti'') is used colloquially to designate collaborators of justice in Italian criminal procedure terminology who were formerly part of criminal organizations and decided to collaborate with a public ...

Francesco Fonti, a former member of 'Ndrangheta, of sinking at least 30 ships loaded with toxic waste, much of it radioactive. In 2005, Fonti revealed the conspiracy in the news magazine L'espresso. His statements led to widespread investigations into the radioactive waste disposal rackets, involving Giorgio Comerio and his disposal company, the Odm (Oceanic Disposal Management).Parla un boss: Così lo Stato pagava la 'ndrangheta per smaltire i rifiuti tossici
by Riccardo Bocca, L’Espresso, August 5, 2005 According to Fonti a manager of Enea paid the clan to get rid of 600 drums of toxic and radioactive waste from Italy, Switzerland, France, Germany, and the US, with

Somalia Somalia, officially the Federal Republic of Somalia, is the easternmost country in continental Africa. The country is located in the Horn of Africa and is bordered by Ethiopia to the west, Djibouti to the northwest, Kenya to the southwest, th ...

as the destination, where the waste was buried after buying off local politicians. Former employees of Enea are suspected of paying the criminals to take waste off their hands in the 1980s and 1990s. Shipments to Somalia continued into the 1990s, while the 'Ndrangheta clan also blew up shiploads of waste, including radioactive hospital waste, and sending them to the sea bed off the Calabrian coast.From cocaine to plutonium: mafia clan accused of trafficking nuclear waste
The Guardian, October 9, 2007 Fonti revealed that he personally sank three ships and identified a wreck located 28 kilometres off the coast of Cetraro, in

, by environmental workers as MV ''Cunsky'' and says he sunk it himself in 1992, complete with 120 barrels of toxic and radioactive waste. He said 'Ndrangheta received £100,000 for the job.Mafia accused of sinking ship full of radioactive waste off Italy
by Nick Squires, The Telegraph, September 16, 2009Mafia sank boat with radioactive waste: official
, AFP, September 14, 2009Shipwreck may hold radioactive waste sunk by mafia off Italian coast
by John Hooper, The Guardian, September 16, 2009 Fonti had been put on the job by his boss Sebastiano Romeo of the 'Ndrangheta clan from San Luca in collaboration with Giuseppe Giorgi. Another 'Ndrangheta boss involved was Natale Iamonte who sank ships near Melito di Porto Salvo.Complotto sotto il mare
by Riccardo Bocca, L’Espresso, September 17, 2009 However, the vessel they surveyed off Cetraro in deep waters off the coast of Calabria turned out to be a passenger steamship sunk by a German submarine in 1917. Consequently, one of the prosecutors questioned the reliability of Fonti on the alleged sinkings, despite the fact that his collaboration with the authorities since 1994 had resulted in high-profile arrests of 'Ndrangheta members involved in drug trafficking.
Financial Times, October 30, 2009

People

* Riccardo Pizzuti actor

References

Sources

External links

Proloco CetraroAgenda 21 Cetraro
{{authority control Cities and towns in Calabria