West Bangka Police Name 3 Suspects Of Illegal Mining On Belolaut Beach

Ponton mining equipment that was successfully confiscated in patrols controlling tin ore illegal mining activities in the Belolaut Beach area, Mentok. (ANTARA/HO-Humas West Bangka Police)

West Bangka Resort Police (Polres), Bangka Belitung Islands (Babel) have named three suspects in the tin ore illegal mining case in the Belolaut Beach area, Mentok District.

"We have named the three people, AR, NA and AG, as suspects, they are owners of the pontoon or production mining equipment unit that we have previously secured in the Belolaut Beach area," said West Bangka Police Head of Polairud Iptu Yudi Lasmono as reported by ANTARA, Friday, November 24.

He explained, on Tuesday (14/11) at around 13.00 WIB, the West Bangka Police Polairud Unit personnel controlled tin ore illegal mining activities on the beach and secured three units of ponton.

The control of international mining activities is carried out based on information from the public stating that there are still miners operating in that location even though the police have made an appeal not to operate because they violate the rules.

"From that information, we then conducted a search in the waters of Belolaut and found three units of pontoons carrying out mining activities," he said.

At that time the team carried out control using patrol boats and found several miners working and were asked to immediately stop mining activities, officers then asked the owner in charge of the mining activity.

"At that time the officers asked the miners for a permit, but they could not show an operational permit so that the owner and evidence of three units of the pontoon were secured to the West Bangka Police Satpolairud Headquarters for further processing.

"Currently, the three owners of the mining equipment have been named as suspects and are undergoing further legal proceedings, while we confiscated three units of pontoon as evidence," he said.

This incident is expected to be a deterrent effect for the public not to carry out mining without the permission of the relevant agencies.