Jingzhou Branch of Changhang Public Security Bureau cracked an illegal mining case supervised by the Ministry of Public Security with a value of more than 2.8 million yuan

The transport ship was transformed into a sand dredger, which could absorb more than 1600 tons of sand in 20 minutes and make a profit of more than 100000 yuan; Criminal gangs spend a lot of manpower to follow the police, not only fixed, but also mobile, some in the upstream several kilometers, some in the downstream several kilometers, not only to prevent surprise operations, but also to prevent cross-departmental unified action, using "slang" secret language to inform, playing a "cat and mouse game" in the Yangtze River. In March

this year, in the Jingzhou section of the Yangtze River, the Jingzhou Branch of the Changhang Public Security Bureau cracked a case of illegal sand mining under the supervision of the Ministry of Public Security, and arrested criminal suspect 30 people, including Fan. Since 2022, this criminal gang, which integrates reform, mining, barge, transportation and marketing, has repeatedly stolen more than 40000 tons of river sand in the waters of Jingzhou section of the Yangtze River, worth more than 2.8 million yuan. Among the

seized ships, an intelligent "invisible" sand suction ship is very conspicuous. In order to cover up, the whole stern of the ship is covered by the deck. Along the sand dredger extending from the bottom of the ship, the ship looks like a transport ship loaded with bulk cargo, but it is actually an upgraded sand dredger. It is understood that this upgraded version of the sand dredger is simple to operate, not easy to detect, very fast, known as "schistosomiasis", an hour can mine four or five thousand tons of sand, a profit of hundreds of thousands of yuan.

"The sand dredger can be operated by several workers. When the button is pressed, the intelligent operation of the sand dredger will take no more than half an hour from the insertion into the river bottom to the recovery of the equipment. These sand dredgers will insert the" invisible "pipeline into the river bottom to suck sand crazily. All the fish and shrimps involved will be sucked away. In some special areas, the disorderly illegal mining will suck the flat river into a deep pit." It directly affects the safety of waterways, embankments and bridges. The police said: "At present, most of the mixing stations along the Yangtze River are in a state of" not enough to eat ". Many of them can only break the stones and use them as cement raw materials, but their stickiness is poor. Sand and gravel in the Yangtze River have become scarce resources. In order to make huge profits, lawless elements take risks and buy boats to refit sand mining. They steal one hour a day and can recover the cost in a few days!"

In order to evade the attack of water law enforcement departments such as public security organs, the organization of illegal sand mining gangs has been upgraded, more than half of the watchmen of sand mining gangs have been organized, criminal gangs have organized a large number of manpower to watch law enforcement departments, and there are special watchmen at the entrance of public security organs, not only fixed but also mobile. Some are several kilometers upstream and some are several kilometers downstream, which not only prevents the police from taking surprise actions, but also prevents the water administration departments from organizing unified actions.

In the division of interests, the sand mining gangs only get 40%, and the tracking personnel get 60%; in the division of labor of criminal gangs, more than half of the people are responsible for tracking, and a small number of people are responsible for sand mining.

According to the special case police, in this case, the illegal mining gang had a strong sense of anti-reconnaissance.When carrying out illegal mining operations at night, they deployed speedboats on the water surface to patrol the river surface, set up a number of sentries in the waters of more than 20 kilometers of the Yangtze River, and set up "mobile sentries" on the shore of the core waters of illegal mining. The collection of evidence faces great difficulties and obstacles.

In order to avoid the tracking of criminal suspect, we adjusted our investigation ideas and arrest strategies, disguised as illegal fishermen, used police UAVs to investigate and collect evidence at high altitude, and through more than 200 days of line-hunting tracking, we carried out the investigation and arrest of illegal fishermen. We have fully grasped the evidence of this illegal sand mining criminal gang.

With the maturity of the time, on March 31, 2023, under the unified command of the Jingzhou Branch of the Changhang Public Security Bureau, more than 40 police forces formed five arrest working groups, which went to the scene of illegal mining on water, the place where ships docked and the scene where they were watched, synchronously collected nets and blossomed at multiple points, accurately captured nine major criminal suspect, seized one sand dredger on the spot, and seized one sand dredger on the spot. Four sand carriers seized more than 2,000 tons of river sand and 600,000 yuan in cash at the scene!

At present, the Jingzhou Branch of the Changhang Public Security Bureau has concluded the investigation of the case and transferred 23 criminal suspect to the procuratorate for examination and prosecution.