It has taken an extremely long time to go through by hand with all that material
Spokeswoman, Environment Agency
The men from Swindon were arrested in July and originally bailed until the end of October as part of the Environment Agency's investigation into the source of 91 containers of illegal mixed waste that entered Brazilian ports between February and May 2009 (see letsrecycle.com story).
Wiltshire police today (November 27) confirmed they have now been rebailed until mid-March 2010 as a result of the Environment Agency's continuing investigation, meaning that they have been released without charge but must return to Wiltshire police at a future date.
However, there is a lack of clarity over whether the men are the three named in the mainstream media at the time of the arrests.
Julio and Juliano Da Silva and Daniel Corticiero had previously been named, however, Wiltshire police said the three men rebailed had different names but were unable to divulge them for legal reasons.
“Time consuming”
Meanwhile, the Environment Agency's National Environmental Crime Unit (NECU) has taken longer than anticipated to examine the containers of waste at the Port of Felixstowe in Suffolk, which is being used to gather evidence for any forthcoming legal action.
The NECU is examining each of the 91 loads at a make-shift site at Felixstowe, the alleged port of origin for the waste, to also determine the accuracy of Brazilian environment agency claims that the containers included medical and hazardous waste.
The NECU began the examination at the end of September and had hoped to complete it within seven or eight weeks (see letsrecycle.com story). However, a spokeswoman for the Environment Agency told letsrecycle.com this week that it is currently still ongoing.
She said: “The last I heard they are still ploughing through because it is so time consuming. It has taken an extremely long time to go through by hand with all that material, so I am not expecting anything until next week at the earliest.”
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