For the first time, Nghe An prosecuted 'sand bandits'

On January 10, Nam Dan District Police said that this unit is still taking statements to expand the case of Lam Son - Dai Thanh Cooperative illegally exploiting sand. Two months ago, the director of this cooperative, Mr. Nguyen Trung Chau (66 years old, residing in Nam Dan town), was prosecuted and temporarily detained for four months for violating regulations on resource exploitation.

According to Lieutenant Colonel Nguyen Duc Hai - Deputy Director of Nghe An Provincial Police, this is the first time Nghe An has criminally prosecuted a case of illegal sand mining.

An illegal sand dredger on Lam River. Photo: Tien Hung

According to police records, Lam Son - Dai Thanh Cooperative was established in 2013. In 2016, the cooperative had 60 members, each member owned a sand dredger. In January 2015, this cooperative was licensed to exploit sand at 3 mines on Lam River, with an area of ​​over 37 hectares and an exploitation capacity of 49,000 cubic meters/year. The first mine is located in the area flowing through Nam Tan and Nam Thuong communes. The second mine is located in Nam Loc commune and the third mine flows through Khanh Son and Xuan Lam communes.

However, believing that the licensed mine section through Nam Tan and Nam Thuong communes had bad sand and many rocky rapids that were very difficult to exploit, Mr. Chau and some members of the cooperative management board directed the members to take ships to the area bordering Thanh Chuong district, where sand mining was not licensed.

After a period of secret surveillance, at around 2:00 a.m. on December 28, 2016, Nam Dan District Police mobilized nearly 100 officers and soldiers with many vehicles to suddenly "raid" on Lam River. In just a split second, police boats and canoes surrounded 8 ships illegally dredging sand. All 8 ships were members of Lam Son - Dai Thanh Cooperative.

“The area where these ships illegally dredged sand was only about 300 meters away from the licensed mine. Therefore, if there was no surprise siege, the ship owners would flee there, and the raid would be in vain,” said Senior Lieutenant Vuong Truong Tho, the investigator handling the case. He added that after being arrested, the ship owners remained calm because they thought they would only be fined a few million VND and then continue mining.

Illegal sand dredging is the main cause of landslides. Photo: Tien Hung

However, with the alleged behavior, this cooperative director is facing a penalty of 2 to 7 years in prison.

In addition, the police are also clarifying the roles of some other members. The investigation agency determined that during this time, the ships of the cooperative, of which Mr. Chau is the director, illegally exploited nearly 450,000 m3 of sand in this area, equivalent to more than 13 billion VND.

“According to my research, this is the second time in the country that a “sand bandit” has been criminally prosecuted,” said Senior Lieutenant Vuong Truong Tho, adding that the first case was prosecuted by the Office of the Police Investigation Agency (C44, Ministry of Public Security). Accordingly, in November 2014, C44 prosecuted and arrested 6 “sand bandits” who specialized in mining on the Red River.

In 2017, Nghe An Provincial Police clarified 311 cases, administratively sanctioned 318 people for illegally exploiting sand and gravel. The amount of fines this year also increased by more than 3 billion VND.

“Administrative fines are like “catching and throwing away the plate”, which even encourages “sand bandits” to exploit more vigorously. Normally, after losing the fine, the ship owners will have to exploit more to compensate,” said a criminal police officer who specializes in monitoring illegal sand mining. Not criminally prosecuting “sand bandits” is also a reason why the illegal mining situation is becoming more and more complicated.