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CALIFORNIA MAN GUILTY OF ILLEGAL HAZARDOUS CHEMICALS DISPOSAL

Release Date: 03/26/2001
Contact Information:


FOR RELEASE: MONDAY, MARCH 26, 2001

CALIFORNIA MAN GUILTY OF ILLEGAL
HAZARDOUS CHEMICALS DISPOSAL

Luke C. Hester 202-564-7818/hester.luke@epa.gov


Olumbamidele Dada, of Pasadena, Calif., pleaded guilty on March 13 to violating the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act by illegally disposing of hazardous materials. In 1994, Dada arranged with a shipper in Wilmington, Calif., to transport thousands of containers of chemicals to Nigeria for resale. The highly toxic, corrosive and flammable chemicals, which were old and declared to be “retrograde,” were purchased from the U.S. military. Dada never completed the transportation of the chemicals and they were left at the shipper’s facility where their containers began to leak in 1999. The shipper was ordered by the U.S. Coast Guard and the Los Angeles County Fire Department to perform a clean-up which cost approximately $90,000. When sentenced, Dada faces a maximum sentence of up to five years in prison and/or a fine of up to $250,000. The case was investigated by EPA’s Criminal Investigation Division, the Defense Criminal Investigative Service, the U.S. Coast Guard and the Los Angeles County Fire Department’s Health Hazardous Materials Division. It is being prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Los Angeles.

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