Raid on illegal Matura quarry, suspects held, machinery seized

Police swooped down on a hotbed of an illegal quarry operator on Tuesday off Pine Road, in Matura catching seven suspects red-handed.

Two excavators and a truck were among the machinery seized by a special task force working alongside the Office of the Commissioner of State Lands to clamp down in what has been described a runaway multi-billion dollar illegal trade.

Illegal operators have been destroying hundreds of acres of pristine forest and even encroaching on the protected turtle nesting site at Orosco Road in Matura for several months carting away tonnes of gravel and sand.

Last month, the task force raided an illegal operator in Wallerfield and made similar seizures.