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August 14, 2021 They planned a single large fire in the area of ​​the Iblei mountains, on August 15th. Two shepherds, father and son, farmers in the wooded area of ​​Syracuse.



Burning to obtain more pasture to the detriment of crops, the Mediterranean scrub and the life of the people and animals that live there. The investigative trail is that of the so-called 'illegal pasture crime', which sees some unscrupulous farmers committing all kinds of abuses in order to expand grazing lands for their livestock, in particular to save on the costs of purchasing forage.



The investigations of the public prosecutor's office of Syracuse, launched following a series of large fires which all occurred in the month of July, triggered the arrest for the two breeders, the 60-year-old father and the 27-year-old son, belonging to the medieval village of 1,800 souls of the countryside of Buccheri. The flames also came to lick those houses, putting the lives of the inhabitants themselves at risk.



The investigators and the Carabinieri of the Operational and Radiomobile Nucleus of the Compagnia di Noto are convinced that the methods of spreading the flames, the concentration of the fire in some points and the systematic resumption of the fires, after they had been hardly extinguished by the Fire Brigade, by the forestry of the Sicilian Region and by the volunteers, lead to the "profound conviction" of the malicious matrix of the facts.   



The two breeders originally from the neighboring province of Catania, but settled in the Buccheri countryside, own a company: petrol cans were found in their car at times deemed to coincide with the spread of fires.



Tracking, controls and environmental interceptions, made difficult by the wooded area, the wind and the temperatures that reached the area even at 48 degrees, led to the criminal activity of the two who, according to the prosecutor's office, planned a single huge fire just for the day of Mid-August.



They wanted to "clean" the land of dry grass and brambles, to the detriment of private and state-owned orchards and olive groves, some of which are protected areas considered naturalistic heritage.