Sand trafficking: a scourge that is worsening in Latin America – El Nuevo Siglo | Insight Crime
![Mining is removing sand from coastal sites, such as this one in Colombia, faster than natural processes can replenish it (photo © Nelson Rangel-Buitrago)](https://coastalcare.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/science.adj9593-f1-798x807.jpg)
Low risk, difficult to detect and with huge profits, this crime affects most countries in the region. There are several ‘cartels’ in this black market…..
Looting of the sea: the great sand theft – ABC
![Sand mining, Mizoram, India (by Karen Conniff CC BY-NC 2.0 courtesy of Water Alternatives Photos via Flickr).](https://coastalcare.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/49013400278_cba657eb2d_k-798x532.jpg)
It is the most demanded raw material after water. It is used to make concrete, chips, detergents, paints… and even artificial islands. The big cities are hungry for sand and to satisfy it, the world’s beaches are being plundered….
2022 Six Part Series on “Sand Dealers” – Le Monde
![Sand Mining on Terekhol River, Cargao, India, Goa (by Ivan Komarov, CC BY-NC 2.0 DEED, via Flickr).](https://coastalcare.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/33358165426_98199b48ea_k-798x530.jpg)
Published in 2022, links to Le Monde’s Series on Sand are provided here…
Inside the Crime Rings Trafficking Sand – Scientific American
![Trucks looting sand from Bharathapuzha, Palakkad, India (by Arayilpdas, CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia).](https://coastalcare.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/Trucks-looting-sand-from-bhararthapuzha-798x496.jpeg)
Organized crime is mining sand from rivers and coasts to feed demand worldwide, ruining ecosystems and communities. Can it be stopped?…
S A N D : Essential . . . Unregulated . . . and Dwindling
![Sand Mining in Quarry Lake, Tahirpur, Bangladesh (by Hasin Hayder on unsplash).](https://coastalcare.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/hasin-hayder-974UGD5ov44-unsplash-798x532.jpg)
“Sand is the foundation of human construction and a fundamental ingredient in concrete, asphalt, glass and other building materials. But sand, like other natural resources, is limited and its ungoverned extraction is driving erosion, flooding, the salination of aquifers and the collapse of coastal defences…”