In July 2008 it was first discovered that more than 500 truckloads of sand were removed from a planned resort at Coral Springs, near Duncans in Trelawny. The main suspects at that time were people in the tourism industry. Great sand for a private beach is a must-have asset.
Unlike most large, and expensive stolen things, finding a stolen beach has proved to be difficult if impossible. The investigation went on for months, lead by Jamaica's Prime Minister, Bruce Golding. The police took sand samples from other beaches for forensic analysis, but came up empty.
It sounds like the perfect crime, or a brilliant trick by the likes of David Copperfield. How does one hire dozens of trucks without any record? No one noticed a caravan of trucks filled with sand traversing the island all night? Where do you find enough laborers to load an unload sand without any of them telling someone else? All questions that will probably never have an answer. In February of 2011, five people were arrested for the crime. The charges were later dropped.
