Laying a trap for sand thieves

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THE Hulu Selangor Land Office has deployed undercover officers to catch the sand thieves red-handed in Bukit Beruntung.

The sand thieves have been operating illegally on an 8ha land belonging to Koperasi Guru-Guru Ugama Hulu Selangor.

Hulu Selangor Land Office district officer Nor Hisham Ahmad Dahlan said there were no workers, lorries or contractors working there when a team of officers raided the place yesterday. However, there were some machineries and tonnes of sand everywhere.

“We are ready to trap them as we have deployed undercover officers to trace the movements of these sand thieves. We will nab them when they come to move their lorries and other machineries out.

Officials from the Hulu Selangor District Council and Land Office discuss about the illegal sand-mining activities.

“I estimate about 100 lorry-loads were transported out during the two-week illegal sand mining operation. They have been stealing the sand since August.

“In fact, there is a mountain-high of washed sand here and the thieves will definitely come back to transport it out,’’ he said.

He added that the thieves were cunning as they used the route taken by a licensed sand mining company — Kumpulan Semesta Sdn Bhd.

Kumpulan Semesta is extracting sand from Sungai Selangor and their lorries use this route to get in and out of the area in Bukit Beruntung.

Nor Hisham said the thieves used this route because it was “safe” as they know about the legal Sungai Selangor sand-mining activity and that the police and Road Transport Department would not stop them.

“However, the thieves are stealing sand from the pond and not from the river.

“It is very easy to differentiate whether the sand is from the river or the pond. Our officers are experts in determining this.

“The important thing here is to nab the operator,’’ said Nor Hisham.