Italian police said Tuesday they have arrested 54 people accused of illegally exporting waste plastic to Southeast Asia in a lucrative business of potentially environmentally harmful products.

Police seized 114 containers with 2,600 tonnes of waste including car tyres at the port of Taranto in southern Italy and said they had managed to trace transfers of 6.0 million euros ($8.0 million) between Italy and Asia.

The police said in a statement that the people arrested "belonged to a dangerous trans-national criminal organisation devoted to the illicit trans-border traffic of large quantities of special waste products."

The statement did not specify the countries to which the waste was going but added that it was being re-used in the production of toys, household products, baby bottles and sanitary products that were then re-sold in Europe.

It said the plastics were bought illegally, not properly treated for recycling and exported out of Italy using fake customs documents.

The police estimated the group had managed to export 34,000 tons illicitly.