Caserta – No longer limited to the traditional perimeter of the Land of Fires, the state's crackdown on environmental crimes now extends to the so-called "buffer areas," the border zones of the Agro Caleno and Medio Volturno rivers. Following the directives of the Prefecture of Caserta and the recommendations of the landmark ruling of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in January 2025, law enforcement agencies launched a massive "Action Day" that resulted in record seizures and charges.
Drones and aerial reconnaissance: the siege from above
The operation wasn't just on land. The areas of Sparanise, Pastorano, and Bellona were combed by the Guardia di Finanza's ROAN airborne units and Army drones. This technological deployment allowed for the identification of illicit warehouses and suspicious activity from above, precisely coordinating the two operational groups led by the Carabinieri Forestali and the Provincial Police, with the support of the Caserta Police Headquarters for the inspection of garages and car wreckers.
Sparanise and Pastorano: textile waste and illegal labor
The most striking results come from Sparanise, where two warehouses containing over 460 cubic meters of illegally accumulated waste were sealed.
In Pastorano, a hub of industrial production, the inspections focused on four companies active in the recycling of plastics and fabrics. The toll is heavy: a 4.000-square-meter warehouse was seized, four people were reported, and six illegal workers were discovered. Administrative fines exceeded the €30.000 threshold.
Illegal landfills in Vitulazio and irregularities in Bellona
The enforcement effort also reached Vitulazio, where the Carabinieri discovered and seized a 7.000-square-meter unauthorized landfill. Inside lay enormous bales of textile scraps and hazardous waste. In Bellona, the State Police fined a mechanical workshop for irregularly managing waste loading and unloading records, a sign that monitoring has become widespread, even for small artisanal businesses.
A new post-ECHR ruling strategy
Today's operation marks a step change in the public health protection strategy. As highlighted by the Strasbourg judges last year, cleanup and monitoring cannot be limited to already mapped municipalities, but must comprehensively address all areas exposed to illegal dumping. The Prefecture of Caserta has confirmed that these extraordinary inspections will continue regularly to prevent the phenomenon of fires and illegal dumping from simply moving a few kilometers off the radar.
It seems to me to be a necessary action but there are many things that are unclear, the controls are very strong and perhaps they shift the problem from one country to another, the public is not well informed and the seizures are sometimes too heavy, let's hope that after these interventions we see real improvements.