The new Gomorrah of waste: how the Campania-Puglia axis has become Italy's garbage dump.

There's a stretch of asphalt that bisects Southern Italy, crossing the Apennines and connecting the Tyrrhenian Sea to the Adriatic. For months, that route connecting Campania to Puglia carried not only legal goods, but also the ghosts of a failed ecological transition: tons of hazardous waste , falsely labeled industrial waste, and sludge to be hidden away from the prying eyes of inspectors.

Magistrates of the Bari District Anti-Mafia Directorate have lifted the veil on what appears to be a truly "structured system." This isn't an isolated incident, but a criminal assembly line capable of operating within the loose confines of bureaucracy and the vastness of the Capitanata countryside. In short, the new Gomorrah of poisons.

The investigation, coordinated by Ilaria Casu, the Office of the Judge for Preliminary Investigations in the Apulian capital, reveals a perfect mechanism. On one side are the manufacturing companies and large storage centers in Campania and Lazio, crushed by the high costs of legal disposal; on the other, the Apulian soil, considered a vast carpet under which to hide the dust.

In the middle, a dense constellation of brokers, financial intermediaries, transport cooperative managers, and local "ground workers" were ready to indicate the exact location where the trucks could unload the poisons without arousing suspicion.

The Brokers' Dome and the Logistics of Silence

The organization's beating heart lies in its ability to make what is profoundly dirty appear clean. This is where waste brokers and managers of consulting and recovery companies come into play. The Salerno area emerges as a crucial hub for document management: figures capable of connecting the demand for low-cost disposal with logistics supply. Companies like Li Consulting srl, Waste Services srl, and Green Eco srl, spread across the provinces of Salerno, Benevento, and Lazio, according to the prosecution, acted as catalysts for the trafficking.

Once the load was planned, the operational phase began, dominated by the Cerignola logistics hub. The DDA's investigations focused on the top management of Calvio Trasporti srls and Ceva Service Società Cooperativa. They weren't just small-time drivers, but, according to investigators, key players in ensuring the smooth running of the transport. The trucks departed, traveling at night or during rush hour, covered by falsified waste identification forms (FIR) or with altered CER codes, to make toxic or untreated cargo appear to be inert materials.

The army of the "Basisti" of the Capitanata

But a truck loaded with hazardous waste can't move in the dark. It needs eyes on the ground, someone familiar with the local roads, the pace of law enforcement checks, and, above all, the suitable land or warehouses where the "tipping" can take place. The Bari investigation sheds light on the role of the so-called "basemen," a veritable gang rooted in the Foggia area, with Cerignola as its headquarters.

Their role was both highly operational and strategic. They monitored the dumping sites, welcomed trucks at highway toll booths, acted as couriers to avoid checkpoints, and managed the safety of unloading operations. Among these, Domenico Di Corcia is identified by investigators as the person most responsible for some of the most serious misconduct alleged in the charges, acting as a veritable field director to coordinate the ground teams.

Roles and responsibilities

Magistrates of the Bari District Anti-Mafia Directorate have reconstructed the criminal network by dividing the thirty suspects into specific categories, each with a specific role in the illicit trafficking economy. The main charges revolve around the crimes of organized activities for the illicit trafficking of waste (Article 452-quaterdecies of the Criminal Code), receiving stolen goods, and ideological forgery committed by a private individual in a public document, with the aggravating circumstance of facilitating or acting as a structured organization.

Documentary directors: brokers and intermediaries

Brokers sit at the heart of this trafficking ring. Figures like Ilario Vernieri, Biagio Campiglia (manager of Li Consulting), Luca D'Ambrosio, and Roberto Antonio Stanziano (head of Waste Services) are accused of being the strategic masterminds. Their job? Creating the "verbal and documentary screen." According to the prosecution, they managed contacts between waste-producing companies and transport firms, falsifying loading and unloading registers and FIR forms. They were the ones who decided where to channel the money and gave the appearance of legality to waste that should never have left the industrial sites.

The transport hub: the Calvio-Campese axis

Without the wheels of the trucks, the industrial sludge doesn't move. In Cerignola, the logistical hub of the operation lies with the Calvio and Campese families. Lucia Calvio (Director of Calvio Trasporti) and Giacomo Campese (manager of the Ceva Service cooperative), along with Mauro Campese (counselor and driver), are accused of having made the company fleet available for the material transport of hazardous waste. The DDA (DDA) accuses them of systematically altering routes and falsifying CER codes: their drivers traveled knowing that the containers contained materials different from those declared on paper, evading highway inspections by using timetables calculated to the nearest millimeter.

The Foggia assault team: the ground bases

Once the truck reached its destination, the buck was passed to the local laborers. This is the group of "basisti," led by Domenico Di Corcia, believed by investigators to be the actual "field manager" of the operations in the Foggia area. Di Corcia, along with Daniele Mastrullo, Giuseppe Calvio, Matteo Antoniciello, Matteo Carosiello, and Francesco Pio Losurdo, is accused of physically identifying the dumping areas (protected agricultural land or abandoned warehouses) and managing security. They were the ones who acted as "couriers" for the trucks as they exited the toll booth, manned the gates during nighttime unloading, and immediately burying the waste with mechanical shovels to hide the evidence before dawn.

The producers and suppliers of the “cargo”

Finally, there are the owners of waste recovery and treatment companies spread across Campania, Lazio, and Puglia, who needed to dispose of processing waste to reduce operating costs. Directors such as Aurelio Proia (Mp Recuperi), Stefano Falzarano (Ambiente & Metalli), Domenico Memoli, Giovanni Moccia (Polimec), Stefano Cavanna (RMP Salari), Ilaria Valletta (Eco Energy), Adriana Ioana Magliocca (Metalplast), Giovanni Caliendo (Ricicla Campania), and the Lori dynasty (Gino, Antonella, and Giorgio Lori of San. Eco. Recuperi and Green Eco) are accused of knowingly transferring waste to a network of brokers without verifying its true final destination, falsifying waste treatment or declassification certificates to obliterate tons of waste from regional registers.

The map of the suspects: all the names of the investigation

VERNIERI Ilario, born in Salerno on 02/07/1972 and resident in Pellezzano (SA), waste intermediary.
CAMPESE Mauro, born in Milan on 09/01/1984 and resident in Cerignola (FG), member of the board of directors of the transport company “Ceva Service Società Cooperativa”, as well as driver for “Calvio Trasporti srls”.
CALVIO Lucia, born in Cerignola (FG) on 06/09/1988 and resident there, Sole Director of “Calvio Trasporti srls”.
CAMPESE Giacomo, born in Cerignola (FG) on 04/03/1963 and resident there, manager of the transport company “Ceva Service – Società Cooperativa”.
CALVIO Giuseppe, born in Cerignola (FG) on 08/09/1983 and resident there, basis.
ANTONICIELLO Matteo, born in Cerignola (FG) on 12/09/1984 and resident there, basis.
CAROSIELLO Matteo, born in Cerignola (FG) on 03/30/1975 and resident there, baseman.
LOSURDO Francesco Pio, born in San Giovanni Rotondo (FG) on 03/30/1981 and resident in Cerignola (FG), basistista.
MASTRULLO Daniele, born in Foggia on 05/25/1983 and domiciled in Foggia at Di Corcia Anna Maria, a supporter.
DI CORCIA Domenico, born in Foggia on 20/12/1966 and resident there, insider, responsible for the conduct reported in the charges.
CAMPIGLIA Biagio, born in Polla (SA) on 03/17/1979 and resident in San Pietro al Tanagro (SA), manager of the waste brokerage company “Li Consulting srl”.
D'AMBROSIO Luca, born in Battipaglia (SA) on 01/05/1994 and resident there, waste intermediary.
PROIA Aurelio, born in Latina on 07/21/1966 and resident in Philadelphia (USA), de facto domiciled in Latina, Sole Director of “Mp Recuperi Srl”.
STANZIANO Roberto Antonio, born in Puerto Cabello (Venezuela) on 09/18/1968 and resident in Cerreto Sannita (BN), Sole Director of the waste brokerage company “Waste Services Srl”.
FALZARANO Stefano, born in Benevento on 20/01/1994 and resident in Airola (BN), Sole Director of “Ambiente & Metalli srl”.
MEMOLI Domenico, born in Salerno on 12/30/1969 and resident in Baronissi (SA), Sole Director of “Memoli Domenico srl”.
DE SIMONE Giovanni, born in Naples on 06/18/1981 and resident in Sant'Anastasia (NA).
LORI Gino, born in Guidonia Montecelio (RM) on 03/29/1963 and resident in Tivoli (RM), manager of “San. Eco. Recuperi srl”.
ROME Cosimo, born in Brindisi on 04/22/1978 and resident there, manager of “Bri. Ecologica srl”.
MOCCIA Giovanni, born in San Giuseppe Vesuviano (NA) on 19/04/1986 and resident there, Sole Director of “Polimec srl”.
CAVANNA Stefano, born in Rome on 08/31/1971 and resident in Valmontone (RM), Sole Director of “RMP Salari Srl”.
VALLETTA Ilaria, born in Aubonne (Switzerland) on 02/06/1975 and resident in Moiano (BN), Sole Director of “Eco Energy srl”.
MAGLIOCCA Adriana Ioana, born in Sibiu (Romania) on 10/31/1981 and resident in Pignataro Maggiore (CE), Sole Director of “Metalplast surl”.
LORI Antonella, born in Guidonia Montecelio (RM) on 17/01/1960 and resident in Villanova di Guidonia (RM), Sole Director of “San. Eco. Recuperi srl”.
MILAN Manuela, born in Brindisi on 20/01/1981 and resident there, Sole Director of “Bri. Ecologica srl”.
DE SIMONE Pasquale, born in Naples on 03/01/1983 and resident in Sant'Anastasia (NA), Sole Director of “Desi Group srl”.
CALIENDO Giovanni, born in Nola (NA) on 03/20/1977 and resident in Albanella (SA), Sole Director of “Ricicla Campania srl”.
LORI Giorgio, born in Rome on 02/16/1999 and resident in Guidonia Montecelio (RM), Sole Director of the waste brokerage company “Green Eco srl”.
NAPLES Antonietta, born in Salerno on 12/09/1979 and resident in Siano (SA).
VENERUSO Gianpiero, born in Cava De' Tirreni (SA) on 06/25/1974 and resident in Battipaglia (SA).

Seizure of assets

The investigating judge also ordered the preventive seizure (aimed at confiscation) of the sums of money, financial resources and other movable or immovable assets owned by the companies to be identified in the enforcement proceedings.
in relation to the administrative offences attributed to them respectively and up to the amount of the quotas of
profit to each of them thus ascribed.

Euro 587.808,28 for the ENVIRONMENT & METALS flow;
Euro 59.225,00 for RMP SALARI flow;
Euro 260.625,25 ECO ENERGY flow;
Euro 20.175,00 for the RICICLA CAMPANIA flow;
Euro 88.869,35 for MEMOLI DOMENICO flow;
Euro 144.424,88 for METALPLAST flow;
Euro 317.113,47 for DESI GROUP flow;
Euro 398.408,10 for SAN flow. ECO RECUPERI;
Euro 32.106,20 for RELMA PLASTICHE flow;
10) €273.288,30 for BRI. ECOLOGICA flow;

The preventive seizure of the following vehicles:

driving force owned by “SILVER MOON SrLs”
tractor owned by “Calvio Trasporti srls!

trailer owned by “SILVER MOON Srls”
trailer owned by “CALVIO Trasporti srls”
trailer owned by “CS: Trasporti srls”