THE SAND THIEVES

Sand is the hidden architecture of our modern world—but it's running out. Global mafias are stealing this precious resource from right beneath our feet, and they're willing to kill for it.

- ANDREW ZALESKI

THE FIRST TIME SUMAIRA ABDULALI TANGOED with the sand mafia, it was 2004. She was 43 years old and enjoying time with her husband and two kids at the family's holiday home on the western coast of India in Maharashtra state, a five-hour drive from their primary residence in Mumbai. She needed the rest: At the time, Abdulali was single-handedly running an activism campaign against noise pollution in the city. Her childhood haven, Kihim Beach on the Arabian Sea, seemed like the best place to escape from the noise.

Abdulali knew the beach intimately. She recalled the short drive from her vacation home, down a main thoroughfare that turns onto a narrow beach road, winding past a village and a temple. She could picture the familiar blanket of pristine, white sand, decorated with swaying palm trees and flowering hibiscus bushes. And perhaps most importantly, she remembered it as virtually deserted-even in the vacation season that kicks off here in April and lasts through June.

But not long after arriving, Abdulali realized that her holiday escape would quickly become a nightmare.

It all began when she was driving down the main road in her husband's white rallyracing sedan and heard the clanking racket of dump trucks, backhoe loaders, and other earth-moving equipment. More suspiciously, the machines appeared to turn toward the beach and then immediately turn off their lights, as if they were trying to avoid attention.

After several hours, the dump trucks retreated toward the main road with their lights back on and their beds piled high with sand. The whole scene didn't sit right with her.