2 Suspects Of Illegal Sand Mining In Batam Raup Untung Besar Capai Miliaran

The Riau Islands Police revealed a case of illegal sand mining (ANTARA/Jessica)

The Riau Islands Police (Kepri) uncovered an illegal sand mining case and arrested two suspects. Director of Special Criminal Investigation (Dirreskrimsus) of the Riau Islands Police, Kombes Putu Yudha Prawira, said the two suspects arrested were the initials HK and SJ. "There were 2 cases with the same problem, because the modes, locations, and evidence confiscated were almost the same, namely the case of illegal sand mining that occurred in Batu Besar Village, Nongsa, Batam. This incident occurred on January 8 and January 29, 2024," Putu said in Batam, as reported by Antara, Tuesday, February 6. The profits in this illegal sand mine reached Rp1.8 billion. The evidence that was secured were two dompeng machines, two four-wheeled vehicles, a paralon pipe, a hose, a notebook and tens of cubic meters of sand. "So the modus operandi is that the suspect buys land, then the wash is carried out at the location. Then separated between the soil and the sand, then the sand is taken. Currently, we are still developing where the sand is sold," he said. Putu explained that one of the two suspects in a day produced 5 sand lories which then sold for IDR 600,000 per lori. "So the profit is that one of these suspects, who has worked for 2 years with the initials SJ, is Rp. 1.8 billion for 2 years," he said. The articles suspected are article 158 of Law number 4 of 2009 concerning mining, minerals and coal.

"This is still developing information that some have been sold to housing, some are sold to companies and so on. We are still developing this, later we will hear from the suspects where they sell these sand and water," said Putu.