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Every year, thousands of forest fires are torn in southern Italy, with high temperatures and warm, dry, sarcastic winds. The climate crisis is pouring gasoline on these cats, but according to new research, the mafia is illuminating the spark.
During the hot, dry winds The land prime for the great fire of Italy, these are the human beings who start them. More than half Have been deliberately set upOfficials say, for reasons, from cleaning the land to personal vendor.
Since the mafia control is strong, where the fire causes fire in these areas, these criminal groups increase the scrutiny.
UC Berkeley’s researcher Lauren Pearson said the mafia is “surrendering” for control and financial gain in the region. He spent months talking to prosecutors, police, environmental groups and locals in Sicily, where the mafia groups are active.
Pyerson told CNN that the way mafias works – with high levels of control over shadows and communities – means that it is difficult to easily eliminate strict data connecting them to fire – But evidence indicates a clear relationship between organized crime and forest fire, according to their recent Study.
In southern Italy, there has always been a jungle fire, but the recent summer has been catastrophic. Sicily endured more than 8,000 fires in 2021 as the temperature reached 120 degrees Fahrenheit.
They were so strict, the Regional Anti -Mafia Commission made a Inquest For possible criminal reasons behind them.
It combined with the weather of the fire, combined with the inaccessible forest regions, helping to set the stage for sharp, uncontrollable fire. But criminal activities are “the most dangerous factor” Report Said
These criminal activities are not just a mafia business, which works for environmental non -profit ligamybed, who have been documenting mafia environmental crimes for decades. Experts say there is a “fire industry” in southern Italy, he told CNN, because many people are involved.
Fire is set on fire by seasonal workers seeking to extend the fire extinguisher contracts, farmers who want to clean the forest to grazing, want to clean up protesters or people with venditis.
But even when the mafia is not directly responsible, it is unimaginable that anyone will deliberately launch a fire without its permission in the mafia -controlled area.
In 2023, more than half of Italy’s fires occurred in Sicily, Piglia, Kalabria and Campenia, where the four major historical mafia in southern Italy have roots, Winszo Lionello, the founder of the mafia’s influence, said.
Repeated fire in these areas “either attacked the mafia or they are guilty. It is a simple logic,” said Sergio Nazaro, a journalist and former spokesman for the president of the individual mafia parliamentary commission.
There are two main objectives for the use of mafia fire: strength and profit.
Nazaro told CNN that the fire was money. This creates an emergency that has to be resolved and is a profit for companies that move forward. There are firefighting, cleaning works and reconstruction agreements. The mafia is a multi -faceted criminal business, saying, “It is from a labor force that brings the fire to the fire on the ground.”
Parson said there was also evidence that mafia organizations are using fire to purchase land for broker for solar and air infrastructure, with the hope that clean energy transfer funds. I hope to tap.
A farmer, whose testimony appears in the Anti -Mafia Commission report, talked about contacting solar panel companies after burning his land.
Parson said there was a cruelty in the game. It seems that the mafia is surrendering to both climate change, which is flogging more destructive fires, as well as trying to exploit funds with the intention of resolving it.
“The Italian mafia” is a master to know how to illegally receive new funds, “he said.
In addition to using the fire for financial gain, experts say it fits with the mafia violence culture. “There is a weapon of threats and terrorism,” said Pierceson, a way to declare that the land is still their. “
It is very difficult to deliberately deal with the fire. Nazaro said that the fire is easy to start through the volcano and the stimulus is often clearly clear. “The real problem is to identify criminals and especially principals.”
Currently involved in the mafia is “no solid evidence” Sicily’s Palermo Prosecutor’s Office said Deputy Prosecutor Andrea Zoppe. Although there is evidence that forest fire often causes speculation of land, he told CNN.
Italy has a number of laws that have been designed to eliminate the fire, except for many years after burning the earth. But these laws can be difficult to enforce, they need a lot of tracking and monitoring, Parson said.
The World Wildlife Fund’s Sicily Delegation, Petro Seola, says the biggest problem in parts of Italy is lack of fire fighting strategies, which has been spent on firefighting but stopped and stopped them. Not to work to save land forests. He told CNN that it “makes it easier for the mafia and doing business.”
As the planet is hot, the mafia can make it easier for the mafia to use fire for their heads, Pyerson said. “Climate change is becoming a weapon.”
