Pollution: Air and Water

Crimes connected to air and water pollution are considered transnational environmental crimes. These criminal offenses either cause or permit this particular kind of pollution, and they are inherently transnational because most toxins and pollutants travel freely on the wind and in surface and ground-water, moving from one country to another. In fact, once they are introduced in an ecosystem, the travel of pollutants is not stopped by borders: ecosystems are open systems, governed not by political boundaries and rules but by the biological, chemical, and geographical laws of nature.

Air and water pollution is caused mainly by the illegal disposal of toxic industrial waste, which is currently one of the main illegal services offered by many organized criminal groups. Paradoxically, this illegal service has become more ...