Spain busts criminal organization sending hazardous electronic waste to several African countries

The Spanish Customs and Civil Guard announced that they dismantled an organization that had sent more than 5,000 tons of hazardous electronic waste from the Canary Islands to several African countries including Ghana and Mauritania, Africa News reports.

The “criminal organization had, during the last two years, managed to send from the island of Gran Canaria to Africa more than 5,000 tons of hazardous waste of electronic devices, and would have earned more than one and a half million euros” of profit, the customs indicated.

The shipments were sent by boat, “mainly” to Mauritania, Nigeria, Ghana and Senegal.

The Spanish authorities have arrested 48 “for alleged environmental offences, forgery and membership to a criminal organization”.

The organization reportedly was “removing waste from the legal channel” with the help of a “supposed management company that falsified documents on the origin and management”

This waste was then presented as second-hand items to be sent to these African countries. The e-waste which contains mercury, lead, cadmium, arsenic and phosphorus, must normally be handed over to authorized companies for decontamination.