On the afternoon of December 31, a representative of the Traffic Police Department (Ministry of Public Security) said that the unit had just discovered a case of illegal sand mining on the Luc Nam River (in Luc Nam district, Bac Giang province). In which, the functional forces arrested 12 vehicles including: dredgers, self-propelled suction ships, transport ships... for illegal sand mining.

Specifically, at 7:40 a.m. the same day, the working group of Waterway Division I (Traffic Police Department) presided over and coordinated with professional units of the Traffic Police Department of Bac Giang Provincial Police and Luc Nam District Police to divide into 5 groups to ambush and patrol on the Luc Nam River.

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Traffic police inspect illegal sand mining vehicles. Photo: CACC

During the inspection at the mine of the CS Construction Materials Exploitation and Trading Cooperative, the working group discovered 3 ships pumping sand from the riverbed and then pumping it to other ships to transport for sale. During the inspection, the workers on the ships could not present documents related to the drivers, vehicles, professional certificates, and invoices related to the amount of sand carried on the ships.

When inspecting the mine of HP Mineral Exploitation Company Limited, the authorities discovered 9 ships of various types pumping sand from the riverbed and transferring it to transport ships. The people on these ships could not present sand mining licenses issued by competent authorities, certificates of professional competence, and professional certificates of the crew members on the ships.

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12 ships were temporarily detained by authorities. Photo: CACC

Working Group I of Waterway Division, together with the Traffic Police Department of Bac Giang Provincial Police and Luc Nam District Police, made a record of the incident, temporarily detained the vehicle and related vehicle documents.

"Through initial measurement of the location, it was determined that the two dredgers of HP Mineral Exploitation Company Limited were exploiting sand outside the mine area, while the ships of CS Construction Materials Exploitation and Trading Cooperative showed signs of exploiting sand outside the mine area and outside of the prescribed hours," added a representative of the Traffic Police Department.

The Traffic Police Department has handed over the case to local police for further investigation and clarification.