Three crew members of a specialized vessel have been notified of suspicion for illegally mining 10,000 tons of sand from the Desna River, the National Police said on Thursday, UNN reports.
Details
Reportedly, three employees of a private joint-stock company that provides mining services have been found guilty of illegal extraction of sand from the Desna River.
Law enforcement officers found that the company, which has a special permit from the State Service of Geology and Subsoil to extract sand from the Desnianske-Upper deposit, signed a contract with PJSC for the extraction of channel sands by lifting it with a dredger and loading it onto barges. Under the terms of the contract, according to the police, the contractor is obliged to strictly adhere to the boundaries of the field, the specified coordinates and the established depth limits, in accordance with the field development project and the special permit for subsoil use.
"Instead, during the relevant work, three crew members of the special vessel deliberately violated the law and dredged more than 10,000 tons of sand from the bottom of the Desna River outside the permitted limits," the police said.
According to the Prosecutor General's Office, the defendants "loaded the 10,000 tons of sand illegally extracted from the Desna River onto 9 barges for further transportation to a storage facility in Kyiv.
"The offenders caused more than UAH 7.7 million in losses to the state through their illegal actions," the police said.
It is stated that the defendants were notified of suspicion under Part 3 of Article 240 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine - illegal mining committed by prior conspiracy. The sanction of the article provides for up to six years in prison.
The issue of choosing a measure of restraint for the suspects is currently being decided.
The offenders face up to six years in prison.