Ningbo, Zhejiang: Sea sand of unknown origin is strictly prohibited from entering the market

Recently, the People's Procuratorate of Beilun District, Ningbo City, Zhejiang Province, urged relevant functional departments to strengthen the supervision and management of sand and gravel wharfs and stop the flow of sea sand of unknown origin into the market through sand and gravel wharfs in its jurisdiction. Since

2022, in a number of criminal cases involving sea sand concealment and concealment of criminal proceeds, the court has found that many ships loaded with illegally exploited sea sand have been unloaded and sold from other sea areas to some sand and gravel wharfs in Beilun District. After the clues were handed over to the public interest litigation procuratorial department of the court, the public interest litigation department quickly formed a special team to carry out the action.

After investigation and verification, these illegal ships concealed their navigation tracks by closing AIS (Automatic Identification System) to cover up their criminal acts of illegally transporting sea sand, while the terminal operators allowed these unknown sea sand to be unloaded without verifying the legal source certificate and navigation track of sea sand, resulting in these unknown sea sand flowing into the market.

The survey found that the competent department of the wharf did not regularly require the wharf to conduct self-examination, nor did it strengthen the management of the loading and unloading of sand and gravel at the wharf, which led to the fluke mentality of some wharf operators. In view of the management loopholes found, the court issued a pre-litigation procuratorial proposal to the competent department of the wharf, suggesting that the wharf engaged in sand and gravel loading and unloading within its jurisdiction should be thoroughly investigated, and at the same time, the management and control measures should be implemented to strengthen supervision and management. After

receiving the procuratorial suggestions, the competent authorities of Beilun District of Ningbo City immediately carried out the sand and gravel renovation work of the port and shipping system, urged the wharf to investigate the situation of sand and gravel loading and unloading, and requested the implementation of the inspection of transport documents, the verification of sand and gravel sources, and the establishment of sand and gravel sources and sales accounts. "Illegal sand mining not only destroys the marine ecological environment, but also easily leads to engineering quality accidents and endangers the safety of people's lives and property," said the head of

the Beilun District People's Procuratorate. While cracking down on illegal exploitation of sea sand, we should give full play to the procuratorial function of public interest litigation and help social governance by handling cases.