Thieves Steal a Beach

Thieves in Jamaica have embarrassed police and triggered a political row by stealing a beach - and making a clean getaway.

Hundreds of tonnes of white sand vanished from a planned resort on the island's north coast in July but three months later there is no sign of suspects nor sand.

An estimated 500 truck-loads of sand were removed from the Coral Spring beach in Trelawny and were believed to have been sold to rival resorts, a hefty logistical feat which has stumped police.

"It's a very complex investigation because it involves so many aspects," Mark Shields, the deputy commissioner for crime at the Jamaica Constabulary Force, told the BBC.

"You've got the receivers of the stolen sand, or what we believe to be the sand. The trucks themselves, the organizers and, of course, there is some suspicion that some police were in collusion with the movers of the sand."

A lot of sand is used in unregulated home-building across the Caribbean island but the scale and organisation behind the Trelawny heist - amounting to 400m (1,300ft) of strand - raised suspicions that hotels may have been involved.