Garbage mafia. “The gang operated in Silesia and other parts of the country”

The spokesman for the Regional Prosecutor's Office in Katowice, Michał Binkiewicz, announced on Monday that a series of arrests and searches had been carried out in Silesia, Mazovia and the Lublin region in connection with the operation of illegal hazardous waste dumps.

This is another proceeding of the Regional Prosecutor's Office in Katowice regarding the garbage mafia. According to the findings of the investigation, the recently detained people participated in a criminal group that operated from December 2020 to December 2022. Its members stored, removed and transported waste in Katowice, Mikołów and other towns in the country contrary to the regulations.

They conducted their activities in such conditions or in such a way that it could threaten human life or health, cause a decrease in the quality of water, air or the earth's surface or damage to plants or animals. They certified untruths in the waste database (BDO), the prosecutor's office described.

The detainees were charged with participating in an organized criminal group, transporting, collecting, storing and abandoning hazardous waste in violation of the provisions of the Act and causing danger to the life or health of many people.

At the prosecutor's request, the Katowice-Wschód District Court arrested nine people detained in this case for three months, and the prosecutor applied preventive measures against one suspect – police supervision and property bail. They face a penalty of up to 15 years in prison.

The prosecutor's office emphasizes that the investigation is ongoing. – It also examines capital and personal connections between organized criminal groups involved in illegal waste storage.

Information has been revealed that some of the people cooperating with the organizers of the illegal activity are also suspected in the largest investigation against the environment conducted at the Regional Prosecutor's Office – concluded prosecutor Binkiewicz.