2023-12-19 13:26:00
The beginning of the case dates back to 2018. At the time, Jonathan went to Belgium to negotiate a lucrative contract with an Antwerp company. He will be paid €108 per tonne of waste evacuated and will say that he will take this waste to the Nord department, so that it can be sorted and then recycled. At first, it was done. But this recycling comes at a cost… which Jonathan does not wish to cover. He won’t pay the bills. And, when the companies responsible for waste processing refuse his trucks, Jonathan will turn to the Moselle. Where it will dump thousands of tons of waste and rubble in nature or on private land.
The waste rots in the open air, polluting soil and water tables. ©AFP or licensors
Particularly in Rédange, a border town in the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, where, according to our colleagues from France 2, more than 250 tonnes of rubbish were illegally dumped. Such illegal dumping would require nearly €250,000 for disposal. But the town, which has only a thousand inhabitants, only has a reduced budget. And cannot afford to dispose of the waste at its own expense. While waiting for a decision, the latter rot on site, infiltrate the soil and pollute the groundwater. Around ten other municipalities are affected by such events.
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According to investigators, over three years, no less than 10,000 tonnes of illegal waste crossed the border, facilitated by the use of false certificates and documents. The damage, for municipalities located in the north-east of France but also companies like Suez and Veolia, is estimated at more than 1.5 million euros.
Johnny Demeter, 41, is considered the main protagonist of the trafficking. He spent more than two years in pre-trial detention. And is in confession. “I came to recognize my actions,” he said at the end of the first day of the trial. To regret everything and try to make it all right.” His father, brother and two cousins are also being prosecuted. Just like a Croatian friend, from whom more than 520,000 euros in cash were seized. He is suspected of having served as an intermediary for the rental of trucks and the recruitment of drivers, but also for the laundering of the profits.
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On the first day of the trial, Demeter charged the Belgian company from which it collected the waste. He allegedly told him that not paying the sites where he dumped the garbage was not a problem, that it would be enough to pay a lawyer. “It’s one of the largest recycling centers in Belgium, the gentleman is a billionaire, I deal in scrap metal,” pleaded Johnny Demeter, assuring that he thought that the facts were “not too, too serious” while recognizing having made a lot of money in this traffic. “I didn’t carry dynamite, it was just trash.”
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