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On January 14, the Ho Chi Minh City Police Department issued a decision to prosecute the case, prosecute the accused and execute a temporary detention order against the ringleader, Le Thi Nhu Ngoc (45 years old, from Dong Nai) and 3 other subjects, for the crime of "Violating regulations on resource exploitation". The above decisions and orders were approved by the People's Procuracy at the same level.

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The group of subjects arrested. Photo: CA

Through the investigation, the Economic Security Department - Ho Chi Minh City Police discovered that the group led by Ngoc had illegally exploited sand in the Dong Nai River area in Long Binh Ward, Thu Duc City, bordering Bien Hoa City and Long Thanh District of Dong Nai Province.

The Ho Chi Minh City Police Department has established a special project and assigned the Economic Security Department, the Economic Police Department to coordinate with other professional departments and Thu Duc City Police to fight.

After a long period of monitoring, at dawn on December 5, the task force's detectives ambushed and caught a group of subjects illegally mining sand on the Dong Nai River, the border section between Thu Duc City, Ho Chi Minh City and Bien Hoa City, Dong Nai Province, and then transported a large amount of sand to a location on Road No. 6, Long Buu Quarter, Long Binh Ward, Thu Duc City.

While expanding the investigation, the task force searched many locations in Ho Chi Minh City and Dong Nai province, seizing many related exhibits, machinery, and documents.

Through investigation, the police said that the illegal sand mining ring led by Ngoc was secretly and tightly organized, with many measures to deal with the management of functional agencies.

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Le Thi Nhu Ngoc, the leader of a large-scale illegal sand mining ring on the Dong Nai River. Photo: CA

To facilitate illegal sand mining, in March 2022, Ngoc established Quang Thuan Construction Trading Service Company Limited (headquartered in Thu Duc City), asking someone else to act as the legal entity to legalize the amount of illegally mined sand. In fact, all operations of this company were run by Ngoc.

Ngoc hired subjects such as Pham Dinh Quyen, Dao Minh Duong, Dao Minh Canh... to carry out illegal mining, with a total exploited reserve of more than 11,000m3 of sand. Ngoc also hired a number of other subjects to transport the illegally mined sand to the gathering place at Road No. 6, Long Buu Quarter, Long Binh Ward, Thu Duc City to conduct screening for impurities.

After that, the clean sand was transferred to another yard rented by Ngoc at Lang Lun port (Long Khanh 2 hamlet, Tam Phuoc ward, Bien Hoa city, Dong Nai province) to be sold everywhere, illegally earning billions of dong.

Initially, Ngoc and his accomplices admitted to their crimes. Currently, the Ho Chi Minh City Police Department is continuing to expand the investigation.