Under the Volcano II; Italy's new 'eco-mafia' makes garbage into gold. Along the way, it's turned Mount Vesuvius into a toxic dump.

Byline: Barbie Nadeau

The view from Mount Vesuvius is one of Italy's finest. The Bay of Naples shimmers beyond lush olive groves and vineyards that cascade down the mountain's flanks. The ruins of ancient Pompeii remind tourists and locals alike of the volcano's dangerous past. And those who venture near are indeed in danger. These days, it's not an eruption that threatens--but a man-made environmental disaster.

The whole Campania, as the picturesque hinterlands of Naples are known, has become a toxic-waste dump--and the mafia is to blame. A full third of Italy's refuse is disposed of illegally; much of it ends up here, thanks to "eco-mobsters" who have turned legitimate waste management into a lucrative criminal enterprise. Indeed, they're hauling in so much trash from elsewhere that there's little room left in the landfills for the garbage now piling up on city streets. Some toxins, even those supposedly too lethal to dump, fuel bonfires that illuminate nights on Vesuvius. Health professionals have dubbed the region the "Triangle of Death." A recent study by the Italian Health Ministry in the medical journal Lancet reports that its people are twice as likely as the average Italian to get leukemia and other forms of cancer. "People don't realize they are being poisoned," says researcher Alfredo Mazza. "The authorities have not wanted them to know."

Environmental groups estimate the ecomafia has made 132 billion euros from toxic-waste dumping over the past decade--some 13 percent of its income, according to Pierluigi Vigna, who leads the Nation-al Mafia Commission. Waste-management firms under mafia control underbid legitimate companies by as much as 90 percent to win lucrative contracts from all over Italy, he adds; they specialize in the disposal of particularly toxic waste like medical refuse and used chemicals. Once in Campania, they forge counterfeit toxicity ratings for the stuff, then dump it as if it were ordinary household garbage, either in legitimate dumps or in makeshift landfills. "The mafia has moved from violence to business," says Vigna. "It is much harder for us to stop this new kind of organized crime."

Harmful as this may be to humans, it's also damaging the environment. Buried toxins seeping into groundwater are polluting livestock, posing additional threats to meat and dairy consumers. Last year, the mob even sold some of its trash as fertilizer ...