State investigators say illegal dumping is rampant among mob-connected recyclers
TRENTON-- Investigators said they tracked the trucks carrying dirt and construction debris from a development site in the Bronx to a Hurricane Sandy-damaged beach along the Raritan Bay in New Jersey.
There, a middleman with ties to organized crime arranged to use the contaminated fill to replenish erosion at Cliffwood Beach in Old Bridge, violating local and state regulations, authorities claim.
At a Statehouse hearing Wednesday, an attorney from the State Commission of Investigation, Andrew Cliver, had questions for the so-called dirt broker: How did he set up the deal? How much did he pay the guy who dumped it? How many truckloads did he send there?
Frank Gillette wasn't talking.
"I invoke my Fifth Amendment right," he said over and over, exercising his right to avoid self-incrimination after being subpoenaed by the SCI as part of its probe into illegal dumping by unregulated recycling companies.
Here's a "dirt broker" accused of illegal dumping pleading the 5th in front of the State Commission of Investigation pic.twitter.com/SAZwDVbhGh
-- S.P. Sullivan (@spsullivan) May 25, 2016
Officials at the independent state watchdog, which was formed in the late 1960s to investigate public corruption and organized crime, say the criminal element cast out of New York and New Jersey's garbage industries decades ago never really cleaned up their act.
They just got into the recycling business.
Lee Seglem, the acting executive director of the SCI, said Wednesday that licensing loopholes allow dirt and construction fill tinged with cancer-causing contaminants to be used in neighborhood developments, in restoration projects along waterways and potentially end up in residential flowerbeds as topsoil.
While there are regulations in place that specify what kind of fill can be used where, the chain of custody of these harmful materials is often obscured by a series of unlicensed middlemen wheeling and dealing with little oversight, the commission found.
"It should surprise no one that the architects of this toxic trafficking include organized crime associates and convicted criminals," Seglem said.
Special agents from the SCI testified Wednesday that those looking to get into the trash-hauling or solid waste disposal businesses are subject to detailed background checks conducted by the State Police, and state laws ban anyone with a criminal record from getting a license.
But recycling middlemen like the dirt brokers are exempt from such checks under state law. As one witness told investigators: "All you need is a fax and a phone line and you're in business."
Seglem said the result of that loophole is abuse spanning from Palmyra to Newark. Investigators and environmental officials testified the state Department of Environmental Protection lacks the manpower and regulatory muscle to stop it.
Carol Palmer, a special agent with the commission, said the shady dirt brokers undermine legitimate recycling businesses who struggle to compete with their cut-rate prices.
Palmer said the DEP "has been quick to respond" when investigators reported illegal dumping to the agency. But, she added, "the lack of a regulatory scheme for these brokers means the NJ DEP has no way of proactively stopping this behavior."
The special agent testified that taxpayers can also be left on the hook for cleanup costs when the dumping is discovered too late.
Special agents from the SCI appear at a public hearing in Trenton. In the Cliffwood Beach case, authorities say Gillette worked with another dirt broker, Gregory Guido, who arranged with homeowners near the eroded beach cliff to bring in fill they hoped would stabilize their properties in the weeks after Hurricane Sandy.
The price was right, said Special Agent Joseph Bredehoft. Guido allegedly offered it free of charge.
When the homeowners saw what was coming in off the trucks -- fill flecked with crumbled concrete, splintered wood and gnarled rebar -- they grew suspicious and called the deal off, he said, but the damage was done.
All told, Guido allegedly brought 7,000 cubic yards -- 350 truckloads -- of construction debris. Much of it spilled onto town-owned land along the beach, and Old Bridge's business manager, Christopher Marion, testified it will cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to remediate the site, capping the tainted fill in place.
Gillette has ties to organized crime and has been previously convicted for petty larceny in New York and for passing bad checks in New Jersey, authorities said.
Investigators say they also connected him to a south Jersey recycling facility run by Bradley Sirkin, a Florida man who served time in federal prison on racketeering charges and has his own ties to mob families in New York and Philadelphia.
Mob is still dumping in NJ, state says
During 2012 and 2013, authorities say Sirkin operated the recycling center, approved only to accept vegetative waste including leaves, branches and grass clippings, which it resold as mulch to landscapers and members of the public.
Authorities say they connected the recycling center to a company run by an undisclosed member of the Bonanno crime family and affiliated with Gillette.
When they began scrutinizing the business, the now-defunct Jersey Recycling Services, they allegedly found it was taking in more than grass clippings. Special Agent Michael Dancisin testified the center -- which was only approved to take in 20,000 cubic yards of landscaping waste -- took in more than 380,000 cubic yards of soil and construction debris.
Dancisin said the construction debris sat in the open near the mulch piles, creating the possibility that cancer-causing contaminants from projects in Camden and New Brunswick found their way into topsoil destined for backyard vegetable gardens.
Sirkin did not appear at the hearing on Wednesday. His attorney sent a letter informing the commission his client would "assert the Fifth Amendment privilege."
S.P. Sullivan may be reached at ssullivan@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter. Find NJ.com on Facebook.