
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, May 11, 1990                   TAG: 9005110390
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: LOS ANGELES                                LENGTH: Short

TOXIC WASTE SMUGGLING CHARGED FOR FIRST TIME

Federal, state and local law enforcement officials announced Thursday the first federal felony indictment under an environmental law in a case involving the smuggling of toxic wastes from California into Mexico.

The indictment charges that Raymond Franco, 57, a licensed waste hauler from Orange County, Calif., accepted money from California businesses to take their wastes to legal landfills or recycling facilities. But instead of going to the designated sites, the indictment says, Franco and an accomplice, David Torres, 39, of Huntington Park, Calif., loaded drums of the materials into enclosed trucks destined for Mexico, concealing the barrels under cardboard and wood and surrounding them with empty drums.

Much of the dangerous material was dumped at a Tijuana warehouse owned by Torres, and investigators fear some of the barrels later may have been used by nearby residents to store water. - Los Angeles Times

by CNB