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TRAFFIC

Italian drug baron caught in Colombia

A drug trafficker who is reportedly second in command of an Italian crime syndicate has been arrested in Colombia, local media has reported.

Published: 3 January 2014 13:05 CET
Italian drug baron caught in Colombia
Francesco Bitetto was arrested in Cartagena, Colombia. Photo: Martin St-Amant/Wikimedia Commons

Francesco Bitetto was arrested in the city centre of Cartagena, on Colombia’s Caribbean coast, El Universal reported on Wednesday.

The 52-year-old is allegedly the number two of a criminal organization based in Bari, a city in the heel of Italy’s boot, and Rome.

Bitetto has been given a four-year sentence for trafficking cocaine from Colombia and was on Interpol’s list of wanted criminals, El Universal said.

When contacted by The Local, a spokesperson from Interpol was not immediately available to comment on the case.

The arrest comes six months after Colombian authorities extradited Roberto Pannunzi, thought to be one of the world’s biggest cocaine traffickers.

Pannunzi, who escaped from an Italian jail in 2010, was promptly sent to Rome to serve out the remainder of his 16 and a half year sentence.

READ MORE: Italian mafioso deported from Colombia

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POLLUTION

These are the 55 most polluted towns in Italy

Northern cities including Brescia, Lodi, Monza and Venice topped the pollution chart as Italy's environmental agency warned of a pollution "red alert".

Published: 22 January 2019 13:37 CET
Updated: 23 January 2019 11:13 CET
These are the 55 most polluted towns in Italy
Photo: Pixabay

Smog and pollution are choking Italian cities year-round and many towns are exceeding their limits on fine particles and other pollution, according to a new report from Italian environmental authority Legambiente.

Its annual report, published this week, warned that 2018's figures were a “red alert” for Italy.

At least one of two daily pollution limits, on fine particles and ozone emissions, was exceeded in 55 of Italy’s regional capitals.

Unsurprisingly many of Italy’s big cities exceeded the limits. Venice was ranked fourth, closely followed by Milan, Turin and Padua. Rome was 28th and Naples 29th on the list.

Almost all of the worst affected cities are in northern Italy. Frosinone, south of Rome and an emerging centre of industry, falls outside Italy's traditional “industrial triangle” in the north-west, as does Macerata in Campania and the Sicilian town of Enna.

The main causes are reported to be industry, inefficient domestic heating systems, agricultural practices and, most of all, heavy traffic.

In Italy, cars continue to be by far the most-used means of transport. 65.3 percent of journeys are made by car, Legambiante wrote, with the emissions from some 38 million cars choking Italy’s towns and cities.

Italy has repeatedly been reprimanded by the European Union for exceeding the bloc's recommended limits on air pollution. 

READ MORE: Smog levels way above safe limits in northern Italy

Turin, Milan and Naples are the worst cities in the EU for dangerous particulate pollution, while Italy has the bloc's highest number of premature deaths from nitrogen dioxide fumes spewed out by diesel vehicles, according to the European Environment Agency.

“In Italy the lack of an effective anti-pollution strategy continues to weigh enormously,” stated Giorgio Zampetti, director general of Legambiente “and the fact is that in recent years air pollution has been dealt with in an uneven and extemporaneous manner.”

Examples of the short-term strategies currently used include the temporary ban on highly-polluting vehicles sometimes put in place in northern cities, or the so-called targhe alterne, under which cars with license plates beginning with odd or even numbers are alternately banned from the roads on Sundays.

Legambiente is instead calling for an “ambitious National Plan against pollution” which it says would introduce binding targets and proven measures, including city-centre congestion charges like those used in the UK.

“Atmospheric pollution continues to be a constant emergency in our country,” said Zampetti. “We can no longer try to justify it with the adverse weather conditions in the Po Valley or by linking it to seasonality.”

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