Over 100 Arrested In Europol's Operation On Preventing Spread Of COVID Via Sanitary Waste

MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 30th November, 2020) More than 100 people had been arrested and nearly 280,000 inspections had been conducted in a Europe-wide operation to prevent the spread of COVID-19 through illegal sanitary waste disposal, the European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Cooperation (Europol) said on Monday.

"Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, Europol identified the potential growth in unlawful sanitary waste treatment and disposal, as a result Europol launched operation Retrovirus,"� Europol said in a press release, adding that around 280,000 inspections and 102 arrests had been made so far.

Apart from that, $800,000 ($958,000) in assets were seized. Almost half of all arrests were made in Spain and Portugal, while the operation Retorviurs involved 30 countries in total.

The EU agency specified that the goal of inspections and checks on sanitary waste plants was to counter illegal dumping, storage and shipment amid the health crisis.