Is anyone else fascinated more about the stories of the people that get into this kind of stuff? I mean, it seems like you must just be destined to be in this business if you are in it. Nobody goes on the Internet and researches how to get started sand trafficking.
There is "Sand Mafia" in India also. A lot of people have sadly lost their lives and the corruption / rot runs deep. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sand_theft" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sand_theft</a>
This is happening in SEA, too. The Chinese show up with a giant ship to some rather remote island, offer a few promises or money in exchange to take a little, and completely ravage what beach exists. I've seen it firsthand.<p>To my knowledge, but not necessarily fact, they aren't even working with the country's national government, but small poor regional governments directly.
This happens in other countries too. I thought this podcast about it was good: <a href="https://open.spotify.com/episode/0Dya11oWUSsbCkBA9AAzrM?si=EyK5XCA3SKeaktxaGLbHaw" rel="nofollow">https://open.spotify.com/episode/0Dya11oWUSsbCkBA9AAzrM?si=E...</a>
Reminds the sand trafficing espicode from NPR Planet Money: Peak Sand <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2018/07/13/628894815/episode-853-peak-sand" rel="nofollow">https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2018/07/13/628894815/epis...</a><p>>A few years ago, an entire beach in a remote area of Jamaica vanished. Thieves dug up hundreds of tons of sand and hauled it away in dump trucks in the middle of the night. The sand--white, powdery, Caribbean sand--was worth about a million dollars.
This reminds me of Singapore, where the national stockpile of sand is a literal state secret: <a href="https://www.harvarddesignmagazine.org/articles/built-on-sand-singapore-and-the-new-state-of-risk/" rel="nofollow">https://www.harvarddesignmagazine.org/articles/built-on-sand...</a>
First learned about this from a Carl Hiaasen book, Razor Girl (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Razor_Girl" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Razor_Girl</a>)
I have a gf in Goias brazil . She told me that she was mugged 7 times for her cell phone years ago . Then a new governor came along and began a policy of. allowing police to execute dangerous criminal gang members rather than arrest them. Now the area is considered one of the safest regions. He's rummored to have presidential ambitions. Guess there is a breaking point when crime and corruption gets to a point where people just have had enough and only want results Justice be dammed.