In the Dnipropetrovsk region, the police exposed a group of 5 people who cut down and sold wood worth almost 1.9 million hryvnias in the Novomoskovsk region.
The perpetrators face up to seven years in prison, the press service of the national police in the Dnipropetrovsk region reports.
The police established that the 48-year-old leader of the group suggested to local residents aged 30 to 48 to organize the illegal felling of forest plantations on the territory of the Novomoskovsk district.
It is noted that law enforcement officers conducted 16 searches in homes, cars, and wood storage warehouses. During the searches, they seized official documents, draft records, money, mobile phones and cars, pistols, rifles and a carbine. And also chainsaws and sawn wood, which the attackers did not have time to sell.
"All five persons involved were informed of suspicion for six episodes of criminal activity with a total loss of 1 million 879 thousand hryvnias. The issue of selecting a preventive measure for them in the form of detention is being resolved," the press service said.
Earlier, EcoPolitic wrote, that eco-inspectors calculated more than 10.8 million hryvnias in damages in the Dnipropetrovsk region for felling 1,819 trees in the field protection forest strip on the territory of the Novopil village council of Kryvorizka district.
As EcoPolitic previously reported, detectives of the State Bureau of Investigation uncovered an organized criminal group in the Carpathian region of forestry officials and foresters who cut down trees worth over 2.2 million hryvnias in the Hutsulshchyna National Park.
