Sand trafficking in Latin America(insightcrime.org)
insightcrime.org
Sand trafficking in Latin America
https://insightcrime.org/news/the-mafias-behind-sand-trafficking-in-latin-america/
62 comments
Is anyone else fascinated more about the stories of the people that get into this kind of stuff? I mean, it seems like you must just be destined to be in this business if you are in it. Nobody goes on the Internet and researches how to get started sand trafficking.
I personally think getting into organised crime kind of mirrors the process where corps pick up fresh grads. Someone who fits the profile of being suitable for organised crime is someone without legal opportunities due to a lack of education, illegal immigration status, prior convictions, etc. In similar ways they are "headhunted" in a process that is more about convenience than key skills in a resume. If you're one of these people you'll end up floating around spaces where the "headhunting" happens.
I remember when I was young and unemployed being plucked from the street when I was looking at job cards in the window of a job centre by members of an MLM. They tried to rope me into their ugly embrace selling door to door on commission only deals that were dubious in nature.
What's kind of spooky to me is how thin those lines can be, it only takes one mistake, lapse in judgement in youth or rolling your birth into an unstable family to end up on the wrong side of that line. This is why I personally find it quite distasteful when people who travelled the happy path turn up their nose at people who fell off onto the darker one. In some cases some kids excel in their black market roles and would have applied the same gusto to a white market profession if they'd had that opportunity.
I remember when I was young and unemployed being plucked from the street when I was looking at job cards in the window of a job centre by members of an MLM. They tried to rope me into their ugly embrace selling door to door on commission only deals that were dubious in nature.
What's kind of spooky to me is how thin those lines can be, it only takes one mistake, lapse in judgement in youth or rolling your birth into an unstable family to end up on the wrong side of that line. This is why I personally find it quite distasteful when people who travelled the happy path turn up their nose at people who fell off onto the darker one. In some cases some kids excel in their black market roles and would have applied the same gusto to a white market profession if they'd had that opportunity.
Once you’re in, it also gets progressively easier to get in deeper, and harder to get ‘out’.
All your contacts are ‘in’, you have a reputation and people trust you to do what they expect, etc. etc. If you get arrested, even more so, as now people ‘outside’ have a clear signal which side of the line you’re in.
People looking down on you is as much a defense mechanism for them as anything else too, of course, as it provides not only a us vs them mechanism, but also makes it easier to segregate themselves and avoid crossing the line.
It’s genius really.
All your contacts are ‘in’, you have a reputation and people trust you to do what they expect, etc. etc. If you get arrested, even more so, as now people ‘outside’ have a clear signal which side of the line you’re in.
People looking down on you is as much a defense mechanism for them as anything else too, of course, as it provides not only a us vs them mechanism, but also makes it easier to segregate themselves and avoid crossing the line.
It’s genius really.
The documentary the Act of Killing [1] follows a man who was a regime-sanctioned killer of "communists" in Indonesia. Watching interviews with the director, he talks about how after someone's killed a couple of people, refusing to do more means admitting that the previous kills he's done are something wrong/terrible.
The director helps reveal what's inside the killer's mind by suggesting to him to make a movie of his experiences. In one scene [2], we're at a lush waterfall, we see angels dancing and the victims of the killers thank him for freeing them from communistic godlessness and sending them to heaven, with the song "Born Free" playing in the background...
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5CfG-VmDyjE
[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-ta9To14yw
The director helps reveal what's inside the killer's mind by suggesting to him to make a movie of his experiences. In one scene [2], we're at a lush waterfall, we see angels dancing and the victims of the killers thank him for freeing them from communistic godlessness and sending them to heaven, with the song "Born Free" playing in the background...
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5CfG-VmDyjE
[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-ta9To14yw
Having been close friends to some killers (legally sanctioned by the gov’t at the time), the other issue is killing is, frankly, really easy. Way easier than anyone in polite society is going to be comfortable with really knowing, frankly.
Emotional and social consequences from killing are not so easy though, usually, but the actual act itself is pretty straightforward, especially with a little training and some forethought/prep.
It tends to change one’s view of society and other people quite a bit. Which makes re-integrating with society and/or integrating childhood conditioning hard. Hence the flight to delusions or drugs for many.
But often the hardest part for many people to understand is how easy it can be for many to just shrug their shoulders and go ‘ok’ and continue on with their lives with not only no guilt, but feeling good about it. Because sometimes people needed killin’.
Emotional and social consequences from killing are not so easy though, usually, but the actual act itself is pretty straightforward, especially with a little training and some forethought/prep.
It tends to change one’s view of society and other people quite a bit. Which makes re-integrating with society and/or integrating childhood conditioning hard. Hence the flight to delusions or drugs for many.
But often the hardest part for many people to understand is how easy it can be for many to just shrug their shoulders and go ‘ok’ and continue on with their lives with not only no guilt, but feeling good about it. Because sometimes people needed killin’.
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Aren’t soldiers just that? Governments sanctioned killers? The only “guideline” is that the victim must be the “enemy”. Just that the definition of “enemy” is vague and arbitrary, enough that it can mean anything needed at any time.
Being government sanctioned it makes sense that it would attract people who find it easier (even enjoyable for some) to kill and live with it afterwards, or at least it makes it easy by providing the moral cover that it was necessary and moral. They were enemies after all.
These people are far more likely to continue to find killing easy during and after the fact as ling as they’re given even the vaguest sense of moral cover.
Being government sanctioned it makes sense that it would attract people who find it easier (even enjoyable for some) to kill and live with it afterwards, or at least it makes it easy by providing the moral cover that it was necessary and moral. They were enemies after all.
These people are far more likely to continue to find killing easy during and after the fact as ling as they’re given even the vaguest sense of moral cover.
The vast majority of soldiers will never plausibly be in a position to kill anyone, even in self defense.
And even in the worst wars, very few front line soldiers ever actually killed anyone - even infantry.
And even in the worst wars, very few front line soldiers ever actually killed anyone - even infantry.
Makes sense, with the Pareto principle in mind.
("roughly 80% of consequences come from 20% of causes", https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pareto_principle)
("roughly 80% of consequences come from 20% of causes", https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pareto_principle)
If you believe [https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-ratio-of-combat-soldiers-t...], it varies from 7% to 14% of active military personnel that would be in ‘combat arms’, with everyone else being behind the lines in support roles. At least in the US. That lines up with my understanding anyway.
It’s actually a much lower percentage though. As most combat arms folks will be stuck guarding something and never see action, be in an indirect fire type role (artillery, sitting in a bomber or in a connex piloting a surveillance drone), or even if actually infantry have a super boring tour patrolling some pointless BS in the middle of nowwhere.
It also depends on where you draw the line at ‘killing’ of course. Does being a loader in an artillery battery count? A forward observer? A pilot who fires a cruise missle? A dude pushing the button to fire a cruise missle on a ship? An officer ordering an air strike?
About the only folks who are ‘killers’ in the way most folks would recognize the term though are infantry (of various forms, including mech. inf.), and perhaps some pilots if they have really good optics.
Soldiers follow orders. If they’re good ones anyway. Most have been trained to be able to be killers, and are often armed as such, just in case some folks need killing (per the chain of command and appropriate ROE).
But it rarely comes up, and anyone going into most MOS’s in the military hoping to do that is likely to be sorely disappointed.
Even those high speed low drag types.
It’s actually a much lower percentage though. As most combat arms folks will be stuck guarding something and never see action, be in an indirect fire type role (artillery, sitting in a bomber or in a connex piloting a surveillance drone), or even if actually infantry have a super boring tour patrolling some pointless BS in the middle of nowwhere.
It also depends on where you draw the line at ‘killing’ of course. Does being a loader in an artillery battery count? A forward observer? A pilot who fires a cruise missle? A dude pushing the button to fire a cruise missle on a ship? An officer ordering an air strike?
About the only folks who are ‘killers’ in the way most folks would recognize the term though are infantry (of various forms, including mech. inf.), and perhaps some pilots if they have really good optics.
Soldiers follow orders. If they’re good ones anyway. Most have been trained to be able to be killers, and are often armed as such, just in case some folks need killing (per the chain of command and appropriate ROE).
But it rarely comes up, and anyone going into most MOS’s in the military hoping to do that is likely to be sorely disappointed.
Even those high speed low drag types.
Interesting to read.
> 7% to 14% of active military personnel
These are the people I had in mind - that the Pareto principle applies to them
> 7% to 14% of active military personnel
These are the people I had in mind - that the Pareto principle applies to them
>Aren’t soldiers just that? Governments sanctioned killers?
Don't forget cops. Their job is literally to be willing to kill you over compliance.
Don't forget cops. Their job is literally to be willing to kill you over compliance.
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It seems to me that business springs up wherever there is arbitrage and this is especially true for "free" natural resources (timber, water, etc).
Organised crime can make it profitable because they already have manpower and equipment, but it isn't necessary.
The smuggling operations between Guatemala and Mexico go both ways, depending on market prices in both countries for some very unglamorous products like eggs and gasoline.
Organised crime can make it profitable because they already have manpower and equipment, but it isn't necessary.
The smuggling operations between Guatemala and Mexico go both ways, depending on market prices in both countries for some very unglamorous products like eggs and gasoline.
Makes sense. Being in organized crime must be fucking fascinating. One day, you’re haggling on the price of black market eggs. Next day, you’re arranging the smuggling of sand from Latin America to Australia.
It’s not, you fucked up once and you either go to prison or 6 feet under.
I lost a best friend that few years prior to his jail conviction got his phd in economics. I always knew about his business and he told me many stories about why he was doing it. I even advised him. But I always stayed out of it. One thing got clear to me. The people in that world are similar to our 'normal' world. You have the same hierarchy as in normal society with smart and dumb, nice and not so nice people. His story took place in Europe. He started after meeting some people in his fighting gym. Got a first assignment and things rolled fasr from there. High reward and thrill was an important motivation for him. He occasionally had hundreds of thousands of euros in cash. which we mainly spend on parties, escorts and drugs. Sometimes huge chunks of the money got lost because a person in the chain got caught or stole the money. But on avarage he was making like 200k a month.
He got caught on the highway few years ago with several kilos of heroine and cocaine and has to sit for 22 years.
If he told you more than he should do, seek advice.
This is the way it is with everyone. Rarely does someone choose their industry and job. I was into computers as a child because I had access to them through my grandparents' bookeeping business and being taught by my grandfather.
I really wanted to build houses but could never find a confluence of opportunity. I was sucked in by the available opportunities. My family were all artists and skilled industrial laborers. A lot of whom picked up their trade in the military. My opportunity was tech and I consider myself very lucky.
My father was a failed artist turned retailer bootstrapped by his father's GE stock he was granted as a precision welder, and I worked as a retail clerk and manager in the retail business for a time when I wasn't working in tech.
Farmers kid becomes a farmer. Maybe another opportunity comes up and they take it.
I'm never impressed by anyone's professional title until I hear their story. 99% of the time it's a result of the circumstances they were born into. Usually the only people with an interesting story were born into very modest or limited opportunity and had to grind it out until a better opportunity presented itself.
Sand trafficking is a perfect example. It is the best opportunity they have.
I really wanted to build houses but could never find a confluence of opportunity. I was sucked in by the available opportunities. My family were all artists and skilled industrial laborers. A lot of whom picked up their trade in the military. My opportunity was tech and I consider myself very lucky.
My father was a failed artist turned retailer bootstrapped by his father's GE stock he was granted as a precision welder, and I worked as a retail clerk and manager in the retail business for a time when I wasn't working in tech.
Farmers kid becomes a farmer. Maybe another opportunity comes up and they take it.
I'm never impressed by anyone's professional title until I hear their story. 99% of the time it's a result of the circumstances they were born into. Usually the only people with an interesting story were born into very modest or limited opportunity and had to grind it out until a better opportunity presented itself.
Sand trafficking is a perfect example. It is the best opportunity they have.
your answer was like "tell me you don't live in a third-world country without telling me..."
I am from Argentina so I know: You go to buy sand and are offered the legit one at a price hard to afford, or the "black" one with some discount. This way you learn there is a black market. Maybe for one bag you will get the same price anyway, but when you need an important amount of it, there will be 2 prices.
If you are in a beach town, you hear the rumors about why there is less sand.
Is the same seller making both offers? One for the difficult price, one for the black market price?
I've forgotten the name, but I once watched a documentary on illegal gold mining in Brazil. One of the most successful of them was a German (illegal immigrant?
not enforced in brazil anyway) , who was attracted by the wild west aspect.
There definitely does seem to be a breed of people like this, and Latin America or Africa can present some interesting opportunities (see alo cowboy capitalists by vice).
There definitely does seem to be a breed of people like this, and Latin America or Africa can present some interesting opportunities (see alo cowboy capitalists by vice).
There is "Sand Mafia" in India also. A lot of people have sadly lost their lives and the corruption / rot runs deep. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sand_theft
This is happening in SEA, too. The Chinese show up with a giant ship to some rather remote island, offer a few promises or money in exchange to take a little, and completely ravage what beach exists. I've seen it firsthand.
To my knowledge, but not necessarily fact, they aren't even working with the country's national government, but small poor regional governments directly.
To my knowledge, but not necessarily fact, they aren't even working with the country's national government, but small poor regional governments directly.
This happens in other countries too. I thought this podcast about it was good: https://open.spotify.com/episode/0Dya11oWUSsbCkBA9AAzrM?si=E...
Reminds the sand trafficing espicode from NPR Planet Money: Peak Sand https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2018/07/13/628894815/epis...
>A few years ago, an entire beach in a remote area of Jamaica vanished. Thieves dug up hundreds of tons of sand and hauled it away in dump trucks in the middle of the night. The sand--white, powdery, Caribbean sand--was worth about a million dollars.
>A few years ago, an entire beach in a remote area of Jamaica vanished. Thieves dug up hundreds of tons of sand and hauled it away in dump trucks in the middle of the night. The sand--white, powdery, Caribbean sand--was worth about a million dollars.
A great book that goes deeper into the sand industry is The Material World by Ed Conway. Highly recommended!
In the TV show Barry, this is what NoHo Hank was doing. I thought it was sort of a joke, but guess not.
About $10 per metric ton end customer price (wholesale, CFR), if anyone's interested.
Sand is heavy af. A ton is only like 20 cubic feet. Still… that’s not very much money.
My eye is twitching remembering a fiasco where someone ordered concrete assuming 1 cubic metre required 1 ton of concrete.
Ever since that I’ve assumed it’s about 2.5 tons per cubic metre. This works much better.
Ever since that I’ve assumed it’s about 2.5 tons per cubic metre. This works much better.
But concrete is measured by volume at least in the US (cubic yards…sigh). I think this is because different mix designs can change the resulting weight. I’ve even heard of adding air to make for better pumping.
Air entrainment is critical for freeze-thaw protection, so any exposed concrete in places that have below freezing should have 5-6% air entrained.
The bags of ingredients at the hardware store are usually 20-25kgs here, and labelled that way.
It’s a silly way to buy a lot of concrete, but does help someone without a tow bar.
It’s a silly way to buy a lot of concrete, but does help someone without a tow bar.
how can anyone possibly make money off of that with transport costs and labor?
In case of the Chinese, when I was at sea, I heard stories of massive prisoner ships that are essentially used for slave-labour at-sea. That time it was for fishing (massive mother ship with smaller, still huge ships spreading out to empty out the seas in waters very far away from China).
If they would engage in sand stealing, the prisoner slaves might help keep the labour cost down.
If they would engage in sand stealing, the prisoner slaves might help keep the labour cost down.
A big slow barge can carry $200-500k, depening on how big the barge is. That's a fair amount of cash.
From there, you've got 40-100 truck runs from wherever the barge unloads to wherever the sand's in use, assuming you can't run the barge straight to the customer. Again, that's not a huge amount +to the CFR above.
Above using barge capacity of 20-50k tons, and truck capacity 50 ton.
From there, you've got 40-100 truck runs from wherever the barge unloads to wherever the sand's in use, assuming you can't run the barge straight to the customer. Again, that's not a huge amount +to the CFR above.
Above using barge capacity of 20-50k tons, and truck capacity 50 ton.
This reminds me of Singapore, where the national stockpile of sand is a literal state secret: https://www.harvarddesignmagazine.org/articles/built-on-sand...
First learned about this from a Carl Hiaasen book, Razor Girl (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Razor_Girl)
It would be interesting to know percentage of market
There's a chart about half way through the article - around 40% in Brazil
Brazil seems like a wild place. I mean that in several senses of the word.
If you are interested in what anarchy would actually look like as a political system, Latin America gives some very good insights
Anarchy in a political system. Isn't that a contradiction?
It’s a sliding scale. On one end you have Germany. On the other you have Somalia/Horn of Africa or the like.
I have a gf in Goias brazil . She told me that she was mugged 7 times for her cell phone years ago . Then a new governor came along and began a policy of. allowing police to execute dangerous criminal gang members rather than arrest them. Now the area is considered one of the safest regions. He's rummored to have presidential ambitions. Guess there is a breaking point when crime and corruption gets to a point where people just have had enough and only want results Justice be dammed.
Any sources for the shoot-to-kill policies?
Loads. This wasn't a secret policy:
> “The police will do the right thing: Aim at their little heads and fire! So there is no mistake”
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/26/world/americas/brazil-rio...
> “The police will do the right thing: Aim at their little heads and fire! So there is no mistake”
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/26/world/americas/brazil-rio...
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Queue the next batch of YC sand companies
I think that's a joke but honestly I think there's a disruption opportunity here.
The easy thing about sand is that it takes whatever shape you want it to. The hard thing about sand is that it has to be firm (strong internal chemical bonds) and in small granules (somehow, lots of energy had to go into breaking those bonds, in the beach case this is wave energy).
But if you had a large enough library of rocks with known shapes or which will break along predictable lines, and a precise enough idea of the ultimate desired shape for your project, you could skip the energy intensive middle part and just use large rocks that mostly fit instead of tiny rocks in the form of sand-based concrete. Then you'd glue those rocks together with concrete--which would still require sand, but now much less of it.
I'm not sure how the monetary economics would shake out, but from an energy budget perspective it seems like a win to not require things to be broken up so tiny just to have them glued back together into something so large. "cheaper" to just mostly solve the puzzle out of already large pieces.
The easy thing about sand is that it takes whatever shape you want it to. The hard thing about sand is that it has to be firm (strong internal chemical bonds) and in small granules (somehow, lots of energy had to go into breaking those bonds, in the beach case this is wave energy).
But if you had a large enough library of rocks with known shapes or which will break along predictable lines, and a precise enough idea of the ultimate desired shape for your project, you could skip the energy intensive middle part and just use large rocks that mostly fit instead of tiny rocks in the form of sand-based concrete. Then you'd glue those rocks together with concrete--which would still require sand, but now much less of it.
I'm not sure how the monetary economics would shake out, but from an energy budget perspective it seems like a win to not require things to be broken up so tiny just to have them glued back together into something so large. "cheaper" to just mostly solve the puzzle out of already large pieces.
I think rectangular rocks would work best here. You can lay those down as even rows and get flat walls very easily.
Perhaps we don’t need to use actual rocks, even! Dried clay can work just as well. If we put it in fire, it should become firm enough for most purposes.
Perhaps we don’t need to use actual rocks, even! Dried clay can work just as well. If we put it in fire, it should become firm enough for most purposes.
I imagine most concrete applications in the world are actually reinforced concrete applications. Without rebar, I don't think you can build most spanning concrete structures that we're use to.
This would leave block/stone to mostly go into pure vertical loading applications. It'd probably be reasonably useful for some wall applications, but that seems pretty limited. Even for a true foundation application, it seems like large stone blocks embedded in a concrete matrix would be pretty heterogenous, and you could potentially end up with weird stress concentrations that would be more difficult to model (and perhaps have less desirable failure modes) than rebar concrete.
Another benefit of the "break down and put back together" approach of concrete is that it allows you to get very accurate and precise predictions of behavior. Large blocks will be less predictable. This will likely lead to requiring higher safety margins (which means more material/energy/cost).
This would leave block/stone to mostly go into pure vertical loading applications. It'd probably be reasonably useful for some wall applications, but that seems pretty limited. Even for a true foundation application, it seems like large stone blocks embedded in a concrete matrix would be pretty heterogenous, and you could potentially end up with weird stress concentrations that would be more difficult to model (and perhaps have less desirable failure modes) than rebar concrete.
Another benefit of the "break down and put back together" approach of concrete is that it allows you to get very accurate and precise predictions of behavior. Large blocks will be less predictable. This will likely lead to requiring higher safety margins (which means more material/energy/cost).
Nah, sand has huge advantages in that it has very large surface area and small physical size, while also being physically quite strong (if selected/graded appropriately).
You can’t replace it with fist sized rocks and expect it to behave appropriately, regardless of ‘compensation’
You can’t replace it with fist sized rocks and expect it to behave appropriately, regardless of ‘compensation’
Actually there’s a lot of innovation to be had in sand itself. Currently only certain grain sizes are used. So desert sand gets skipped and beach sand gets smuggled.
Isn't this why often pebbles are simply added to the cement?
How do you imagine competing in price with pebbles?
How do you imagine competing in price with pebbles?
No I imagine competing in price with boulders and a 3d scanner.
Innovation may be needed for recycling of the old concrete from demolished buildings. Including extraction of sand from it.
If anyone invents a cheap process, it may have revolutionary consequences, probably.
If anyone invents a cheap process, it may have revolutionary consequences, probably.
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SandGPT
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