Following extensive security campaigns against the mafias of gold, dollar, and food commodities that have caused excessive price increases, Egypt has decided to launch strong strikes against a new mafia responsible for unprecedented rises in meat and poultry prices. Egyptian authorities have conducted intensive operations in several governorates against the animal feed mafia, which is withholding hundreds of tons of feed from livestock breeders and poultry farms in order to raise prices and achieve significant financial gains. This has resulted in the price of a kilogram of meat exceeding 400 Egyptian pounds and a kilogram of poultry surpassing 110 pounds.
Security forces have managed to apprehend individuals operating 7 unlicensed factories and 7 warehouses across 7 governorates, including Giza, Sharqia, Alexandria, Monufia, Dakahlia, Beni Suef, and Qalyubia. These locations were found storing large quantities of animal feed intended to be withheld from circulation to sell it at inflated prices and generate illicit profits. Authorities discovered nearly 510 tons of feed within these facilities.
Egypt continues its intensive campaigns to control markets and dismantle mafias involved in the sale of gold and foreign currency, as well as the withholding of goods. These operations have led to the arrest of numerous prominent gold traders who have manipulated prices, driving the price per gram to over 4,000 pounds, and those involved in foreign currency trading outside the banking sector, which has caused the price of the dollar to exceed 65 pounds. Additionally, there have been campaigns against the mafia hoarding and storing strategic food commodities such as rice, sugar, flour, petroleum products, and cigarettes.
In response to these activities, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi has approved a law that allows for the referral of these individuals to military courts. Sisi ratified Law No. 3 of 2024, submitted by the government concerning the security and protection of public and vital facilities in the state, following the approval of the House of Representatives. One provision of the law stipulates cooperation between military judicial officers and the police in all legally mandated actions to confront activities or violations that could disrupt the operation of public and vital facilities, or the services provided, as well as crimes that harm the community's fundamental needs for commodities and subsidized products, thereby preserving the basic components of the state and the rights and gains of the people or national security necessities.
