Italian official: Mafia could have sunk ship carrying toxic waste

Sep 15, 2009, 11:24 GMT

Paola, Italy - A sunken ship discovered last week off the southern Italian coast and carrying 120 barrels of suspected radioactive waste, could be one of more than 30 similar vessels destroyed by the Calabrian mafia, a prosecutor said Tuesday.

The 110-metre vessel was found on Saturday 500 metres under water and 20 nautical miles from the coast of Calabria, Paola city prosecutor Bruno Giordano told the German Press Agency dpa.

Footage relayed by a robot-operated underwater camera shows that the barrels on board the wreck were sealed 'in a way' that suggests they contain radioactive or toxic substances, Giordano said.

The find could be 'only the first such wreck,' to provide evidence of involvement by the Calabrian version of the mafia, the 'Ndrangheta, in illicit waste disposal in the Mediterranean, Giordano said.

It is alleged that at least 32 vessels carrying such substances were sunk during the 1980s and early 1990s, even if 'until now,' none of these ships had been discovered, Giordano added.

He cited a 'Ndrangheta turncoat, Francesco Fonti, who in 2006 told investigators that he had participated in the 1993 sinking with explosives of a ship, the Cunsky, in a location which corresponds to Saturday's find.

According to Fonti the Cunsky was carrying radioactive waste, which came from Norway.

'The size of the Cunsky mentioned by Fonti, also corresponds to that of the vessel found on Saturday,' Giordano told dpa.

Giordano said tests would have to be carried out to determine whether the barrels on the ship were indeed used to store radioactive waste.