A vast European waste trafficking network involving "staggering sums of money" has been dismantled with the aid of EU and German authorities, Italian police said Wednesday.
The operation worth an estimated 100 million euros ($107.2 million) allegedly laundered money through companies in Italy, Germany and Hungary before being reinvested in other, mostly illegal, activities, said the environmental branch of Italy's carabinieri in Milan.
More than 65 million euros allegedly passed through the account of a German company linked to a 56-year-old Italian man, the suspected head of the operation with registered companies in Milan and Turin.
Police said 18 people were targeted in the investigation with six arrested. Another eight were placed under house arrest and four ordered not to leave their communities.
Allegations include criminal association for the purpose of illegal trafficking in waste, money laundering, and issuing false invoices.
German police, the EU's Europol and the judicial agency Eurojust collaborated in the investigation, said Italian police, who did not specify when or where the arrests were made.
The investigation found the network resold scrap metal -- some acquired on the black market -- to steelworks, foundries or dealers, falsely claiming it had undergone treatment procedures as required by law.
The network relied on false declarations of conformity and false transport documents.
By concealing the true nature of the waste, some hazardous materials were sent to landfills or unauthorised plants abroad, police said.
Between 2020 and March 2021, for example, some 6,500 tonnes of waste from the treatment and recovery of cables covered with oil, tar or other toxic materials were allegedly collected from a treatment plant in Lombardy and classified as non-hazardous, using false certificates of analysis.