All that glitters is not necessarily gold. Sometimes it’s plastic, which may be worth its weight in gold to the booming Chinese economy. The 54 people arrested for illegal recyclate trafficking by the Italian customs and tax police, Guardia di Finanza, in December 2011 evidently thought so.

A booming economy chronically short of resources creates resourcefulness of its own and breeds its own gangsters. While the Chinese garden variety of gangster may not play in the same league with the ancient crime syndicate known as Cosa Nostra, or simply “the Italian mafia,” some of them may have gone to Taranto – wedged just under the heel of the Italian boot – to learn the ropes.

The culprits in the operation “Gold Plastic”, which Italian authorities promptly dubbed the “eco mafia,” included 51 local businessmen and three Chinese described as “entrepreneurs” seeking to make a quick euro (or millions of such) by smuggling 114 containers containing 2.5m kg of plastic and rubber waste to China.

The resources, recovered from landfills and said to be worth EUR 6m, may have been just been the tip of the iceberg. Sold to China, plastics waste can command up to 250 times the price it would fetch elsewhere. Other contraband headed for Asia is frequently uncovered in this Italian seaport. Once in the People’s Republic, Italian news reports say rubber tyres are shredded and used to generate electricity. From the plastics wastes, toys and even medical devices are manufactured – all goods that originate in Versace country and are then slapped with the label “Made in China.”