(ANSA) - SOFIA, FEBRUARY 3 - The first 28 containers of a shipment of illegal waste from Italy, detected in recent days in the port of West Varna on the Black Sea, will be shipped back to Italy this week on behalf of the recipient. Bulgarian Minister of Environment and Water Resources, Emil Dimitrov, told Sofia-based media today. Last month, Varna regional prosecutor Vladislava Panayotova reported 127 waste containers from Italy found in the port of West Varna. The containers had arrived on October 9, 2019. The cargo had been left at the port for temporary 90-day storage. The recipient was the Sofia-based company Blatsion Ltd., whose owner is Macedonian citizen Blazje Ignatov. His two partners would be Italian citizens. The sender of the cargo is the Italian company Dentice Pantaleone, based in Avellino.

According to the data reported in the documentation, the containers should have carried only plastic and rubber for recycling, but then it was found that they also contained other types of waste such as glass, wood, and textiles. The media reported that suspected waste deliveries from Italy to different parts of Bulgaria have intensified in recent weeks.

Bulgarian media pointed out that the investigation over Italian waste began when the Italian Carabinieri on December 11, 2019, found an 815-ton shipment of waste with false papers, loaded on 17 rail cars from Milan to Bulgaria. The lack of information in some cases, according to Bulgarian media, combined with endemic air pollution in some areas of Bulgaria, including Sofia, has aroused widespread suspicions that the waste, that might even be dangerous, coming from Italy and other countries are illegally incinerated in Bulgaria. (ANSA)