Rocca d'Evandro, excavator seized in the Peccia riverbed and used for illegal extractions

Soldiers belonging to the Forestry Carabinieri Station of Vairano Patenora , during a territorial control service aimed at preventing and repressing crimes against the environment, in the municipality of Mignano Monte Lungo, and specifically in the locality of “Colle della Castagna”, they surprised a person driving a truck loaded with approximately 4 cubic meters of earthy/sandy material while he was driving along a track within the land owned by the same person bordering the Peccia river.

From the inspection of the places, the aforementioned military personnel found that, approximately 150 meters from the point where the truck had been stopped, located in the neighboring municipality of Rocca D'Evandro, there was an excavator inside the riverbed of the Peccia river, used to excavate and load onto the truck the earthy/sandy material present inside the riverbed itself.

Continuing the inspection of the places, they ascertained that several piles of excavated river inert materials, still wet, used for reinforce the river banks.

The subsequent investigation did not reveal the possession of any authorization to carry out the aforementioned interventions. Therefore, the aforementioned soldiers proceeded with the preventive seizure of the Caterpillar brand excavator used to carry out the excavation work on the earthy/sandy material within the bed of the Peccia river, a watercourse classified as public and, therefore, subject to protection landscaping.

The person carrying out the illegal interventions was released in a state of freedom for having carried out what was described in the absence of the necessary urban-building permit and landscape authorisation, with defacement/alteration of the natural beauty of the places subject to the special protection of the authority, as well as for having carried out said interventions in the absence of the necessary hydraulic authorization.