The NECU – which was formed by the Environment Agency to target organised waste crime and recover the proceeds of crime – is now gathering evidence to mount a criminal prosecution in the coming months and is working to prevent a repeat of an incident on this scale in the UK.
Andy Highman, head of the EA's NECU, said: “From an Environment Agency point-of-view, we have developed the NECU, which is made up of experienced investigators, who are becoming more intelligent to things like this and we want to stop this further up the chain.
“We have only been in existence 14 months now; I, myself, was brought on to form this 18 months ago and ultimately, if we can become more intelligent then we can stop things like this. We are trying to be more proactive and stop this type of activity. We have undertaken major investigations and we are now able to stop things like this higher up the chain,” he added.
To date, three Swindon-based men have been arrested in connection with the case but have all been released on police bail until October.
Mr Highman said there was the possibility of further arrests, commenting: “Some other people are being looked at. It is part of the investigation process and we are looking at others potentially involved.”
However, he was unable to proffer any more information at this stage in the investigation.
Containers
In the 14 containers already investigated by the Agency, marked “mixed plastic”, officers found nappies, wellington boots, torn and dirty textiles, parts of a car dashboard and organic waste. All this material has been collected as evidence to be used in any future prosecution.
Each container is filled with 40 bales of material, with each bale weighing in the region of half a tonne. NECU officers inspect the outside of the bale for any obvious contaminants and then break the bale down to sort through for any materials which should not be there.
The waste was taken to the Port of Felixstowe in Suffolk – its assumed port of origin – at the end of August after Brazilian authorities claimed that a large number of containers entering Brazilian ports had contained a range of hazardous and clinical material (see letsrecycle.com story).
The Environment Agency said that, as yet, it had not found any evidence of medical or clinical waste in the containers.
A further 10 containers – made up of material opened and inspected by the Brazilian authorities in July – are due to be returned at the end of September. The material will then be fumigated and also subjected to the same scrutiny as the other containers currently at Felixstowe.
Due to the laborious nature of the process, the investigation team is currently only able to inspect around two and a half containers each day, which means that the inspection stage is likely to take a further seven to eight weeks.
A spokeswoman for the Environment Agency confirmed that, due to its poor quality, the majority of the material recovered was likely to be landfilled.
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