Gradually, even the Camorra had to face the problem of these toxins. A story that informant Gianfranco Mancaniello tells is interesting: he describes a meeting with a boss who had received a proposal from contractors in the north-east, wanting him to take care of several tons of toxic waste. So the boss begins to think about how many landfills he’ll need and under which ground he can dispose of the poisons. An associate reminds him: ‘But we’ll contaminate the groundwater by doing that.’ And the boss replies, ‘What the fuck do we care, we’ll drink mineral water.’ Criminal organizations are ready to turn anything and everything into a business. Profit, profit, profit: those are the three cardinal rules of the organizations. In other words: if we don’t do it, others will, and if others do it they will become stronger than us and we’ll cease to exist. As a result of this logic, southern Italy – the Naples and Caserta region in particular – has been drowned in toxic waste, which has poisoned the countryside and the streets.

We must never forget, however, that the North’s toxic waste is also dumped in the South. In the early 1990s Campania had the greatest number of legal landfills in operation. They could have been adequate for decades and decades, but because they were illegally filled with waste from the North, they became saturated prematurely. From that point on, the system broke down. That’s why Naples’ garbage is everyone’s garbage. Let’s remember that, every time the North refuses to help the South as if it were a problem that doesn’t concern them, every time the politicians of the North refuse to accept waste from Naples. In reality the country is all interconnected, like a system of communicating vessels. Revealing the disposal of the North’s toxic waste in the Giugliano area, informant Gaetano Vassallo stated: ‘The liquid wastes were so contaminated that all the rats immediately died when the wastes were dumped.’

Campania has become the dumping ground for many northern Italian companies, because the line item for the disposal of ‘special waste’, as opposed to household waste, is a big expenditure in a company’s budget. Relying on an intermediary who has contacts with the clan results in greatly lowering this cost. The market price for the proper disposal of toxic waste involves costs ranging from 21 to 62 euro cents per kilo, excluding transport. The clans provide the same service at 9 or 10 euro cents per kilo, including transport. An 80 per cent savings over market prices.