Quảng Nam police seize five illegal sand mining boats

QUẢNG NAM — The central province of Quảng Nam’s waterway police have confiscated five boats along with specialised machines that were used to illegally suck sand from the Thu Bồn River.

According to a police report at 11pm on Tuesday, a waterway police team was patrolling around Nam Phước Town in Duy Xuyên District and caught four boats mining sand under the river. The boat owners failed to present any operation licence.

The four owners of the boats were all local residents. They were Tăng Văn Quang, Ngô Văn Búp, Tăng Khôi and Phan Văn Thành.

In another case, at 6:35pm on the same day, a police team in the district’s Duy Hải Commune detained a different boat for illegally mining sand.

This boat was owned by Ngô Ngọc Vinh, a resident of Cẩm Lệ District in Đà Nẵng.

Police have estimated the volume of sand in the five boats was more than 100 cubic meters.

The waterway police issued administrative fines to the boat owners in accordance with the law.

Lại Hồng Thanh, deputy director of the Việt Nam General Department of Geology and Minerals, said the exploitation of sand and pebbles from river beds is now regulated by the Law on Minerals. —VNS