According to an Italian anti-mafia investigation agency, the construction of the bridge set to connect Sicily with the Italian peninsula, with an estimated budget of 11 billion euros, has attracted infiltration by the Cosa Nostra and 'Ndrangheta. This highlights how mafia organizations find major infrastructure projects to be prime opportunities for generating profits and large-scale money laundering, a trend observed both in Italy and internationally.
Historically, many monumental works have been justified by appealing to the development of the country or city, yet they often end up primarily benefiting large construction companies and individuals linked to mafia activities who hold positions on boards of directors. In Spain, examples of this phenomenon can be seen in high-speed rail lines and airport construction. In the Valencian Community, the Port of Valencia is identified as an emblematic site of this developmental-mafia dynamic.
Nowadays, mafias make money mainly from public works, that is, at the expense of taxpayers.
In this context, the podcast 'Animals Polítics' addresses the environmental consequences of the Port of Valencia expansion through a conversation with Eulàlia Sanjaume. Sanjaume, a professor of physical geography and an expert on the Valencian coast's evolution for over fifty years, warned twenty years ago, in a 2006 report, about the severe negative effects the port's expansion would have on Valencia's southern beaches. Her career includes work on the regeneration of the Albufera wetlands in the 1980s.
