Forensic Geology in Environmental Crime: Illegal Waste Movement & Burial in Northern Ireland

Abstract

The illegal burial of waste often occurs in locations where loose, transferable material is abundant, allowing covert pits to be dug or filled. The transfer of waste material onto suspects and their vehicles during loading, unloading, and burial is common, as is the case during other criminal activities such as the burial of murder victims. We use two case studies to show that the established principles of using geological materials in excluding or linking suspects can be applied to illegal waste disposal. In the first case, the layering of different geological materials on the tailgate of a container used to transport toxic waste demonstrated where the vehicle had been and denied the owner's alibi, associating him with an illegal dumpsite. In the second case, an unusual suite of minerals, recovered from a suspect's trousers, provided the intelligence that led environmental law enforcement officers to an illegal waste burial site.

Keywords:

• forensic geology
• environmental crime
• buried waste

Acknowledgement

AR acknowledges Chris Hunter, Andrew Hudson, Ann Blacker, Mark Preston, Richard Gray of the Environment and Heritage Service (Northern Ireland) for affording us the opportunity to work on the cases described above and for funding. Thanks also to Detective Frankie Taylor (Police Service of Northern Ireland) and John Shanaghan (Garda Siochana, Republic of Ireland) for advice. We are also very grateful to Vaseem Khan and Gloria Laycock of the University College London Centre for Crime and Security. Thanks to EPSRC for facilitating this collaboration.