In Italy, the ecomafias do golden business: 8.8 billion. Every hour 4 illicit offences

In Italy, the ecomafias do golden business. This is what Legambiente highlights in its report "Ecomafia 2024. The stories and numbers of environmental crime in Italy', presented today, Thursday 11 July, in Rome, thirty years after its first publication. In 2023 environmental crimes will grow (35,487, +15.6% compared to 2022), with an average of 97.2 crimes per day, 4 every hour. These offences are mainly concentrated in Southern Italy and in particular in the four regions with a traditional mafia presence - Campania, Puglia, Sicily and Calabria - where 43.5% of criminal offences are concentrated, +3.8% compared to 2022. The entire illegal market in the Peninsula was worth a good 8.8 billion to the ecomafiosi in 2023.

The picture that emerges is worrying: in 2023 in Italy the number of people reported increased (34,481, +30.6%), as did the number of arrests (319, +43% compared to 2022) and seizures (7,152, +19%). Among illicit offences, the pressure of the illegal cement cycle in Italy continues to rise (13,008 offences, +6.5%), which is still in first place among environmental offences; but what is particularly worrying is the surge in criminal offences in the waste cycle , 9,309, + 66.1%, which rise to second place. In third place with 6,581 offences is the offences against animals (from poaching to illegal fishing, from trafficking in protected species to trafficking in pets and animal breeding); followed by wildfires, culpable and general offences with 3,691. The numbers of attacks on cultural heritage are also growing (642 thefts from works of art, +58.9% compared to 2022) and offences in the agri-food industry (45,067 administrative offences, +9.1% compared to 2022), starting with the problem of illegal farming. In addition, 378 mafia clans have been censured.

At regional level, Campania is confirmed in first place with the most environmental offences, 4,952 offences, or 14% of the national total, followed by Sicily (which rises one place with 3,922 offences, +35% compared to 2022), Apulia (dropped to third place with 3,643 offences, +19.2%) and Calabria (2,912 offences, +31.4%). Tuscany rises from seventh to fifth place, followed by Lazio. Sardinia jumps from fifteenth to seventh place. Among the northern regions, Lombardy is still first.

At provincial level, Naples is back in first place, with 1,494 offences, followed by Avellino (up sharply with 1,203 offences, i.e. +72.9%) and Bari. Rome falls to fourth place, with 867 criminal offences, followed by Salerno, Palermo, Foggia and Cosenza. The first northern province is Venice, with 662 offences, which ranks ninth and enters the top twenty provinces for environmental illegality.

The enforcement of Law 68/2015 on ecological offences continued to exceed the 600 mark in 2023, although there was a slight decrease compared to the previous year when it was challenged 637 times. A decrease due to the drop in the number of controls, which fell from 1,559 to 1,405. The crime of environmental pollution remains the most contested in 2023, 111 times, leading to 210 charges and 21 arrests. Another figure concerns the number of commissionsed municipalities, which are currently 19.