2023-12-16 20:44:25
Published16. December 2023, 9:44 p.m.
Cross-border waste scandal: “It was entire 35-ton trucks that were dumped”
BELGIUM/FRANCE – At the entrance to Rédange (Moselle), on the Luxembourg border, 250 tonnes of waste have been polluting the soil for four years, the result of extensive trafficking from Belgium, for which ten defendants are being tried from Monday in Lille.
AFP
Daniel Cimarelli, mayor of Rédange, remembers: “It was entire trucks of 35 tonnes which were dumped”, in October 2019, on private land in his town. Since then, the pile of debris, both household and industrial, has deteriorated, smells bad in summer and, according to local residents, flows into ponds below. It sits on a former steelworks site, in the border town of Luxembourg, also located a few kilometers from Belgium.
“It’s disgusting,” breathes Jessica Dautruche, from the “J’aime ma forêt” collective. “We have been trying to question everyone for four years, but unfortunately the responses we have received are quite meager.” During the investigation which resulted in the referral of ten people to the Specialized Interregional Jurisdiction (Jirs) of Lille, investigators uncovered an organized system of collection, transport and dumping of Belgian waste in the east and north of France.
“Everyone passes the buck and it is not easy to know who is responsible,” adds Mr. Cimarelli, even if according to the texts, it is “up to the Belgian company” responsible for these illegal deposits “to come and get them “. Other sites have since been cleaned up.
“They got rid of it like that, no more, no less”
In this first Jirs case relating to waste trafficking, a scam once morest French reprocessing centers was brought to light. “The suspects took on the appearance of waste managers presenting all the proper authorizations to collect, treat and deposit waste in dedicated places,” summarizes Olivier Hurault, lawyer for the Longwy agglomeration community, where according to “extremely dangerous” waste was dumped on him.
“Under this guise, once they had collected the waste and had been paid, they deposited it on community or private land and got rid of it like that, no more and no less.”
The investigation also established that a single organization had been at the origin of these illegal dumps. She first made deposits in reprocessing centers in France, some of which filed complaints for fraud: false documents, commercial identity theft, unpaid invoices, etc.
AFP
“Organized gang”
The damage is estimated at more than 1.5 million euros, for nearly 10,000 tonnes of waste. One of the main defendants, Johnny Demeter, claims to be a waste trader and broker. He would have organized these transports, without the obligatory authorizations, between 2018 and 2021. Questioned by France 2 in 2020, he said he himself was the victim of another intermediary.
According to the investigation, the team is mainly structured around the Demeter family, with facts which took place until the arrests in June 2021. The aggravating circumstance of “organized gang” was retained.
Among the civil parties, municipalities, companies, but also environmental associations. Their expectations? “A condemnation to the restoration of sites” or even decontamination, according to Laure Derson, lawyer at the Lorraine Nature Environnement association.
“The main thing is elsewhere”
According to a document consulted by theAFP“this penetration of organized crime in the field of waste is also facilitated by the fact that European public authorities are struggling to find solutions that meet the ecological challenges”, while these countries “produce more waste than they can retreat from it.
“Before, it was an aesthetic attack,” recalls the sub-prefect of Thionville (Moselle), Philippe Deschamps. “However, the main thing is elsewhere”, on the environmental level, with waste which “enters the water tables”.
Customs control operations are increasing. “For us, this fight is a priority”, indicates to theAFP Mathieu Boffy, Lorraine-North divisional head of customs. It is “an issue of public safety and the fight once morest air and soil pollution. We must be extremely vigilant.”
(afp)
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