Thieves in Jamaica have embarrassed police and triggered a political row by stealing a beach — and making a clean getaway.
Hundreds of tonnes of white sand vanished from a planned resort on the island’s north coast in July, but three months later there is no sign of suspects nor sand.
An estimated 500 truckloads of sand were removed from the Coral Spring beach in Trelawny and were believed to have been sold to rival resorts, a hefty logistical feat that has stumped police.
“It’s a very complex investigation because it involves so many aspects,” Mark Shields, the deputy commissioner for crime at the Jamaica Constabulary Force, told the BBC.
“You’ve got the receivers of the stolen sand, or what we believe to be the sand. The trucks themselves, the organizers and, of course, there is some suspicion that some police were in collusion with the movers of the sand,” Shields said.
A lot of sand is used in unregulated home-building across the Caribbean island, but the scale and organization behind the Trelawny heist — amounting to 400m of strand — raised suspicions that hotels may have been involved.
Jamaica’s rampant crime is fueled by competition for another type of white powder — cocaine — but sand theft is relatively new.
Jamaican Prime Minister Bruce Golding has reportedly taken a special interest in the case. The opposition People’s National party has alleged a cover-up.
Developers of the planned US$108 million Coral Spring complex have suspended operations and commissioned an environmental study into the impact of the missing beach on nearby saltpans, mangroves and dry limestone forests.
The Jamaica Environmental Advocacy Network has expressed concern and urged authorities to investigate hotels that were under construction at the time of the theft.
Builders are supposed to keep records of their supplies, including sand.
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