“Amber operation” worth almost 4.5 million UAH: a group of “black diggers” was exposed in Rivne region (VIDEO)
Law enforcement officers of Rivne region conducted searches of members of the group, which was engaged in illegal mining and procurement of raw amber. The police officers exposed eight members of the group, among whom was a deputy of the AHG.
All participants are residents of Sarnensky and Rivne districts. Their illegal activities had several directions: illegal mining, buying stones, processing and marketing. The stones were mined by intruders in the territories of the nature reserve and the Klesov forestry. During illegal work, intruders used environmentally hazardous soil erosion technology.
In addition, accomplices bought raw amber from other proven diggers and chose only the highest quality. The purchased and mined stone was processed in underground workshops. In order not to attract too much attention, some of the participants organized mini-shops in their dwellings: they imported amber in small batches, the rest were kept from their accomplices, for the conspiracy the defendants communicated with each other using radios. Processed amber was sold abroad.
Law enforcers have taken measures to eliminate the activities of the group. At the site of illegal extraction of fossil resin, law enforcement officers exposed three members of the group. Near them were homemade pumps with hoses attached and pits were dug.
During the searches of the “black diggers”, operatives and investigators seized more than 200 kilograms of raw amber, hand-made motor pumps, tools for mining and processing stones, cars, ATV, radio stations and rough records. According to preliminary data, the cost of stones is almost 4.5 million hryvnias.
Information on this fact is included in the Unified Register of Pretrial Investigations under Part 2 of Art. 240-1 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine - illegal extraction, sale, acquisition, transfer, shipment, transportation, processing of amber. The issue of imposing an arrest on the seized property and notifying the members of the group about the suspicion is resolved.
Those involved may face up to 7 years in prison with confiscation of property.
National Police of Ukraine
