Operation Wasteland was an undercover investigation into organized crime rings that controlled New York City's waste disposal industry from the 1950s until 1995.[1] The investigation resulted in the indictment and conviction of more than one hundred participants in price-fixing and bid rigging of waste hauling contracts in the city.
| Location | New York City, United States |
|---|---|
| Organised by | Law enforcement |
| Charges |
The story is detailed in the 2002 book Takedown, the Fall of the Last Mafia Empire by Douglas Century[2] and the former New York Police detective Rick Cowan who went undercover for three years to investigate the cartel of trash and recycling services.[1] Cowan pretended to be Dan Benedetto, head of a paper recycling firm to investigate what the book describes as "multi-million-dollar-per-year dynasties that these guys had always expected their grandsons and great-grandsons would inherit."[1] After the cartel's fall in 1995, some businesses in the city reportedly paid as much as 90 percent less for solid waste services.[1] Operation Wasteland is also covered the 2005 book Gone Tomorrow: The Hidden Life of Garbage by Heather Rogers.[3]
References
edit- ^ a b c d "Undercover operation cracked solid waste, paper recycling collusion". www.recyclingtoday.com. 2002-11-15. Retrieved 2025-11-08.
- ^ Cowan, Rick; Century, Douglas (2002). Takedown : the fall of the last Mafia empire. New York: Putnam's. ISBN 978-0399148750.
- ^ Rogers, Heather (2005). Gone tomorrow : the hidden life of garbage. New York: New Press. pp. 191–194. ISBN 9781595581204.
External links
edit- This American Life podcast episode about the cartel and detective Rick Cowan