Zhenjiang, Jiangsu cracked a large-scale illegal sand mining case——

Night capture of the Yangtze River stealing ship

　　Our reporter Wang Weijian

　　"People's Daily" (14th edition, July 06, 2020)

　　After more than three months of thorough investigation, the Zhenjiang police in Jiangsu successfully smashed a large illegal sand mining criminal group that committed more than 300 crimes in the Jiangsu section and the Anhui section of the Yangtze River Basin. 44 criminal suspects were arrested and 30 vessels were detained for preliminary investigation. Ming steals more than 1 million tons of Jiangsha.

　　On July 2nd, the Zhenjiang Police held a press conference to announce the super-large illegal sand mining case, which was also the first illegal sand mining case seized on the spot this year in Jiangsu Province.

　　Late night Yangtze River hunt

　　At the end of February this year, the Marine Police Division of the Zhenjiang Public Security Bureau received a report that an illegal sand mining gang had committed crimes in the Zhenjiang section of the Yangtze River, but the exact time and location of the crime were unknown.

　　"Zhenjiang is located at the intersection of the Yangtze River and the Grand Canal, and the responsibility and mission of the Yangtze River Protection is particularly prominent." Wang Wensheng, deputy mayor of Zhenjiang City and director of the Public Security Bureau, attached great importance to the clues. The Zhenjiang Marine Police Detachment set up a special task force to cooperate with the water administration, maritime affairs, fishery administration and other departments to investigate and preliminary grasp an illegal sand mining gang led by the “Chou Lao Wu” in the waters between the buoys 115-119 in the Yangtze River. It is from 11am to 4am.

　　"We thought of a lot of methods, such as upstream and downstream linkage inspections, inspections at the wrong time, and even the cargo ships were chartered, but at first they were always empty." This made Zhang Yanlong, deputy head of the security squad of the Marine Police Detachment, very strange. He didn't know yet. On the bank not far from the alarm point on the river, a telescope was constantly watching their whereabouts.

　　In the middle of the night on March 19, Zhang Yanlong wanted to "change the way". They contacted the fishermen and drove the borrowed speedboat to another place to board the boat. When they went from the waters of Shiyezhou Xiaojiang to the waters near the Yangtze River 119, Zhang Yanlong's eyes suddenly lighted up: under the night, a row of large black pipes stood in the air, non-stop Black water spit out, a sand mining ship and a sand transport ship are committing crimes!

　　"We are the Zhenjiang Marine Police. Everyone squatted with their hands on their heads and cooperated with the investigation." Jiang Nian, who had been enveloped by the night, suddenly flashed lights and shouted. Although the four sand-collecting personnel on the sand-collecting ship were controlled in the cab, the sand-transporting ship on the side accelerated to escape from the scene. Zhang Yanlong immediately arranged two policemen to stay behind on the sand mining boat, and he and the fishermen drove the speedboat behind to catch up. Four law enforcement vessels and one drone were dispatched urgently to form a siege with the Nanjing Marine Police, and finally the sand ship was captured in the water area crossing Nanjing and Jurong.

For profiteering, criminal suspects take risks without hesitation

　　That night, the police arrested 5 suspects in the case. The "ship owner" confessed that a person named "Zhou Lao Wu" arranged his "top bag". Three days after the incident, a man with the nickname "Zhou Lao Wu" and the real name Zhou Moujiang was arrested and brought to justice. "As we understand,'Zhou Laowu' is the leader of this group of'shashouzi', sloping'Hei Lao Piao' (ie Jiang Sha) on the river." Qiu Feng, the policeman handling the case, said.

　　Why do criminal suspects take such risks? It is understood that if a ton of river sand reaches a certain quality, the normal water price per ton is 20 to 30 yuan, and the highest price is 60 to 70 yuan. The beach price is more than twice the water price, and illegal sand mining can steal the night Mining more than 10,000 tons can be described as "black gold" at the bottom of the river. On May 28, the case was listed as a case supervised by the Ministry of Public Security.

　　"We want to dig out the chain of interest, not only to eliminate the criminal gangs that illegally mine sand, but also to dig deeper into the upstream modification of the shipyard and the downstream sales market." said Chen Xiangen, a party committee member of the Zhenjiang Public Security Bureau. The task force compared more than 150,000 pieces of relevant information, sorted out more than 10,000 bank transaction records, analyzed and judged stolen cargo ship data more than 8,000 times, and went to Anhui, Zhejiang, Shanxi and other places to carry out investigation and evidence collection and arrest work.

　　At present, 44 criminal suspects have all been subjected to criminal coercive measures. The police detained 7 sand mining vessels, 20 transport vessels, and 3 speedboats for Wangfeng.

　　In order to combat illegal sand mining, we must increase punishment

　　"Illegal sand mining seriously threatens the ecology of the Yangtze River, embankments and ship navigation safety." Chen Xiangen said that illegal sand mining will change the riverbed geomorphology and topography, affecting the downstream hydrological situation; sand mining in the river has changed the steady state of sediment transport and caused the river channel to cut , Threatening the safety of downstream bridges, banks and pipelines; at the same time, disordered mining will change the original hydrological environment of the channel, disturb the flow pattern of the water flow and destroy the channel.

　　Ling Hong, director of the Institute of Water Environment Research of the Jiangsu Academy of Environmental Sciences, said that excessive and unauthorized excavation of river sand will also increase the turbidity of the adjacent waters of the mining area, increasing the cost of downstream water treatment; affecting the distribution of surface water and groundwater, resulting in a decline in the groundwater level The water quality deteriorates; meanwhile, it destroys the river ecosystem, causes the riparian zone to retreat, changes the biological reproduction habits, and causes the loss of habitat diversity.

　　Some experts suggested that the crackdown on illegal sand mining in the Yangtze River should be strengthened. Fu Zhenjie, deputy commander of the Marine Police Detachment of the Zhenjiang Public Security Bureau, said that the criminal punishment for illegal sand mining is still relatively light. 2 years. He was still on probation when he committed the crime."

　　Wang Wensheng introduced that in order to protect the ecology of the Yangtze River, the Zhenjiang Marine Police insisted on cracking down on illegal fishing and illegal sand mining. Since 2017, a total of 7 cases of illegal sand mining have been seized, including 2 supervised by the Ministry of Public Security and 1 supervised by the Public Security Department of Jiangsu Province , More than 100 people took criminal compulsory measures.