Jakarta, Indonesia Sentinel — Two large sand dredging vessels flying the Singaporean flag were seized by the Indonesian Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries (KKP) on Wednesday (October 9) near Nipah island, Batam. The vessels were apprehended by officers from the Marine Resources Surveillance (PSDKP) after being caught engaging in illegal sand mining activities in the waters of the Riau Islands province without proper documentation. The sand extracted by the two ships was allegedly being transported to neighboring Singapore for land reclamation projects.
“The vessels were caught on October 9. Yesterday, the Minister of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries boarded our patrol ship, Orcard 3, en route to Nipah island. Along the way, we encountered these vessels. The Minister ordered us to stop and inspect them, and upon investigation, we found they lacked official documentation. Only the captain’s personal documents were present,” explained Pung Nugroho Saksono, Director General of PSDKP, during a press conference on Thursday, October 10.
Further investigation revealed that the sand dredgers had conducted illegal sand mining operations in the waters of Riau Islands at least 10 times. According to Saksono, the vessels operated only three days a month, with each operation lasting nine hours and yielding 10,000 cubic tons of sand, accumulating to 100,000 cubic tons of sand each month. If allowed to continue for a year, the vessels could have extracted up to 1.2 million cubic tons of sand, resulting in an estimated state loss of Rp 223 billion (approximately $14 million).
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Saksono emphasized that the state received no benefit from these illegal activities. “Under proper regulations, the state would have received its share, but in this case, the country gets nothing, it’s a complete loss due to this theft,” he stated.
In addition to the two vessels, authorities also detained 26 crew members, including two Indonesian nationals and 24 foreign nationals from China.
Saksono noted that the PSDKP had only recently managed to apprehend these two foreign vessels as they typically operate quickly and leave the area soon after completing their sand mining activities. “We were on the scene, but they work fast. Based on our information, they complete their operations in just nine hours, whereas we initially thought it would take a week,” he added.
The two illegal sand dredgers are currently being held in the waters off Batam for further legal processing.
(Raidi/Agung)
