ANTI-MAFIA COMMISSION QUESTIONS 'NDRANGHETA TURNCOAT

ANTI-MAFIA COMMISSION QUESTIONS 'NDRANGHETA TURNCOAT

(ANSA) - Rome, November 5 - Parliament's bicameral anti-mafia commission on Tuesday questioned a mafia turncoat who claims he was involved in the sinking of three ships carrying toxic waste, saying he had given them new information.

Francesco Fonti, a former member of southern Calabria's 'Ndrangheta mafia, spent more than five hours fielding questions from commission members, President Gaetano Pecorella told reporters.

Pecorella said Fonti had provided the commission with fresh details which will need to be verified. If confirmed, they could unravel information on how the country's criminal organisations are involved in sinking of toxic-laden vessels and dumping dangerous waste products in landfills.

Last week, the government announced that a wreck which Fonti claimed was sunk off Calabria to dispose of toxic waste was in fact a World War I passenger vessel.

Fonti claimed the ship had been sunk deliberately to conceal radioactive waste.

Investigators discovered the boat 12 miles off the Cosenza coastline in early September, reportedly deducing the location from an account by Fonti, who claimed to have helped sink the vessel - a Russian ship named the Cunsky - 17 years ago.

A robot sent down by regional authorities to investigate the vessel shortly after it was discovered could not make out the name of the boat but reportedly sent back images of containers still on board.

However, images captured by an environment ministry probe in late October concluded there were no containers on board.

Environment Minister Stefania Prestigiacomo said in fact the wreck was a passenger vessel called the Catania.

Extensive testing of waters and sediment around the vessel had revealed no signs of radioactive pollution, she said.

The turncoat claims he was personally involved in the sinking of two other ships and said he knew of at least 30 more vessels sunk by the mafia in Italian waters in order to dispose of toxic waste.

The Catania passenger ship, which belonged to a Genoese shipping company, was built in Palermo in 1906.

It was sunk by a German submarine off the coast of Cosenza on March 16, 1917, on a journey from Bombay (now Mumbai) back to Naples.