In the Odessa region, environmental inspectors, together with prosecutors and the Security Service of Ukraine, exposed a group of violators who were illegally extracting sand from the Danube under the guise of dredging.
Details of the case were reported by the Odessa Regional Prosecutor's Office and the State Environmental Inspection of the South-Western District.
The defendants in the case were two heads of transport companies and the mayor of the city of Vylkove. Under the guise of dredging, without a special permit for subsoil use, they illegally extracted more than 7,700 cubic meters of sand within the waters of the Ust-Dunaysk seaport.
Photo: od.gp.gov.ua.
Photo: od.gp.gov.ua.
In order to avoid problems with local authorities, the organizers of the crime involved the head of the city council in the scheme. The official was promised to be appointed as an advisor to the port manager. To this end, he was “advised” to ignore the violations and not to react to the illegal use of subsoil resources.
The extracted sand was used for the construction of a private multimodal terminal in the Izmail district.
During the searches, law enforcement officers seized specialized equipment, rough accounting records, and electronic media with evidence of illegal activity.
Environmental inspectors of the Southwestern District estimated the damage to the environment at over UAH 170 million.
Photo: od.gp.gov.ua.
The members of the organized criminal group were notified of their suspicion of illegal extraction of minerals of local importance and legalization of property obtained by criminal means (Part 3 of Article 240, Part 2 of Article 209 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine).
Photo: od.gp.gov.ua.
Photo: od.gp.gov.ua.
The mayor was charged with aiding and abetting the illegal extraction of minerals of local importance (Part 5 of Article 27, Part 3 of Article 240 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine).
All three suspects are currently in custody. The pre-trial investigation is ongoing.
Recently, EcoPolitics reported on a farmer who was also illegally mining sand and nearly caused an environmental disaster in the Kyiv region.
