Dive Brief:
- Commercial trash haulers Mustafa Sharif, 63, and Adam Williams Jr., 52, pleaded guilty to federal charges in connection with bribing Baltimore Department of Public Works employees in return for dumping solid waste at the Quarantine Road Landfill.
- The haulers paid a $100 bribe to a landfill employee for each trip they made to the landfill, allowing them to neglect paying the city's $67.50 per ton "tipping" fee. The scheme cost the city $6 million over a decade, according to investigators. Sharif has agreed to pay back $500,000 and Williams $900,000; they'll be sentenced in the fall.
- DPW employee Tamara Oliver Washington, 55, pleaded guilty this month to conspiracy and soliciting bribes. She is set to be sentenced on Oct. 20.
Dive Insight:
Corruption has been rampant at the landfill for a decade, according to prosecutors working with Baltimore Inspector General Robert H. Pearre Jr. Five DPW employees were recently indicted by a federal grand jury for accepting bribes from haulers or stealing scrap from city landfills, a practice Baltimore Brew described as “junking.”
These indictments and convictions should lead to honest practices at the landfill and restoring the city's faith in the Department of Public Works.