ACTING on a tip-off, Richards Bay police swooped on a group allegedly illegally mining building sand in the quarry area close to Mondi yesterday morning.
They confiscated three trucks fully loaded with sand as well as a TLB, arresting five people in the process.
Exact charges will be formulated by detectives before the men appear in court by Friday.
The area the arrests were made is close to where motocross rider Damian Faber narrowly escaped paralysis after landing in a huge excavated hole at the end of a jump on 30 May this year.
The 15-metre fall left him with shattered vertebrae and a long recovery road ahead.
Theft of building sand is an ongoing problem in Zululand, with even Pelican Island in Richards Bay having been targeted.
The drought has exacerbated the issue, with dry river beds being illegally mined on a large scale, using earthmoving equipment.
Along the Mhlathuze River between Nkwaleni and Richards Bay, what little water there is, is regularly dammed so that more sand can be exposed and illegally gathered by groups operating without permits.
Although some policing of the area has been done, the illegal miners operate at hours when government water officials are off duty.
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