The organizer and five accomplices were suspected. Defendants can be jailed for up to seven years.
A group of five people is engaged in illegal cutting and selling of wood in the territory of the Dnieper region. The police suspended the criminal activities of the loggers, the National Police said.
It was established that a 34-year-old resident of Dnipropetrovsk region organized a criminal scheme for illegal cutting of trees in forest protection plantations in Dnipro region. To do this, the organizer attracted two defendants looking for workers, providing them with tools and vehicles. It is possible to attract four men aged 33 to 43 among the “lumberjacks”.
Cut trees were brought to the territory of leased plots and areas, from where they processed and sold timber to private individuals and commercial structures of the region.
The initial amount of damage caused to the exposed group is almost two million hryvnias. On April 26, operatives and investigators, with the support of KORD special forces, exposed the “lumberjacks” on the next cutting trip. In addition, they conducted 14 searches and seized 800 cubic meters of firewood and other timber, equipment, cars for a total cost of more than 4 million hryvnias.
The organizer and five members of the criminal group were aware of a suspicion of the fact of illegal logging and illegal transportation, storage, and sale of timber. The issue of reporting suspicion to another defendant is being resolved.
Currently, four suspects have been selected as preventive measures – detention with the possibility of bail in the amount of 80,000 hryvnias each, and two more are being considered.
Recall that in 2020 in Kyiv, “black loggers” cut down oaks in the Pushcha-Voditsa reserve.
Source: korrespondent
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