Inp.polri.go.id – Riau Island. Riau Island Regional Police have uncovered illegal sand mining and arrest the two prime suspect who benefitted IDR 1.8 billion from their criminal actions. The Special Criminal Investigation Director, Senior Superintendent Putu Yudha Prawira confirmed that his party have arrested the two suspects initialed HK and SJ. “There are two cases with the same issue, as the method, location, and evidence confiscated are quite similar to one another in Batu Besar, Batam. They have committed the criminal actions of mining with legal permit from January 8th,2022 to January 29th, 2024,” reveal Putu quoted from Antaranews on Tuesday (2/6/2024). The evidence gathered by the police are two diesel machines, two four-wheeled cars, pipes, hose, notebook and tens of cubic meters of sand. “The way they did it is that they bought a land, and did filtering at the location. Through filtering they separate the mold and sands. As of now, we are still investigating on where they sold the sand,” explained Putu. One of the suspects, said police, said that for a day, he is able to sold 5 lorries of sand which he sold IDR 600,000 per lorry. “The profit of the suspect initialed SJ for mining the sand illegally for two years estimated have reached around IDR 1.8 billion,” Putu continued. The suspect will be charged with Article 158 of Law number 4 of 2009 concerning mining, minerals and coal. (ad/ek/pr/nm)