Illegal sales of Mexican sand, on the rise

By Alejandro Melgoza and Elisabet Ramírez

Hotels, spas, real estate groups, farms and tourist resorts buy illegal sand, 18 million tons a year to be precise, which turns it into the second most demanded resource after water, according to the International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS).

According to the IUGS, Indonesia and Malaysia are the two countries most affected by sand smuggling, while the Geological Society of America says that in Mexico beaches in Baja California are “extracted” to be taken to the United States.

According to information obtained by EL UNIVERSAL from the Federal Attorney for Environmental Protection (Profepa) via the Transparency Act, traffickers extracted around 26 tons of sand in the country in the last three years and the first months of 2016. From 2014 to 2016 sand smuggling almost quadrupled from 3.5 to 12.6 tons, especially in Baja California Norte, Baja California Sur, Campeche and Quintana Roo.

"Sand smuggling started in the 30s and the 40s of the last century (...). We want to blame climate change, but the truth is that the problem is the result of the lack of control by authorities,” said Saúl Chávez, researcher at the Center for Biological Research of the Northwest (CIBNOR) in La Paz, Baja California Sur.

He added that sand is also used for pool filters and road construction. Each sack, containing 25 kilos (55 pounds) costs 43.50 pesos (US$2.3), which means that traffickers would have earned 45,240 pesos (US$2,387) in the last three years.

On May 8 three smugglers were caught with 280 sacks with 12,600 kilos (27,778 pounds) of sand extracted from the Bahía de los Ángeles in Ensenada, Baja California, while in April 2015 300 cubic meters (10,594 cubic feet) of sand were illegally extracted from a nesting area for turtles in Quintana Roo.

In December 2015 Timoteo Villa Ramírez, a legislator of the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) urged the Ministry of Economy and the Ministry of Natural Resources to take urgent measures against sand extraction from Mexican beaches.