National Gendarmerie: “War Waged On “Mafia” Of Wheat, Table Oil And Milk”

Investigations by the services of the National Gendarmerie revealed serious data about the causes of scarcity in the grain market and its derivatives of semolina, flour and other products of wide consumption.

The national gendarmerie teams and formations working in the field also revealed the size of the diversion of raw materials from their destination, especially the subsidized wheat that a number of mills benefit from through the National Occupational Office for Cereals “OAIC” on the basis of the production of semolina and its derivatives, but they manipulate these quantities by converting and selling them on the black market. , or selling it to livestock owners to provide it as animal feed, while there are mills that do not grind, but sell the hard wheat that reaches them at a subsidized price of 2,280 dinars per quintal to farmers at a price of 3,500 dinars per quintal, who in turn resell it to the Grain Office for 4,500 dinars as Algerian wheat.

On the matter, Colonel Lounis Meli, Head of the Prevention and Public Security Department of the Directorate of Public Security at the Gendarmerie Command, revealed on Tuesday to “Echorouk” that his services are working to implement the anti-speculation policy pursued by the gendarmerie command, in accordance with the instructions of the President of the Republic and the Army Command, aimed at putting an end to the barons activating the mafia “business”, which created chaos in prices and tampered with the market by monopolizing the widely consumed foodstuffs.

In terms of numbers, Colonel Mili revealed that the gendarmerie teams and formations had counted, during the period from January 1 to April 15, 37 cases related to diverting raw materials from their privileged destination, such as wheat that was converted into animal feed, during which 61 people were arrested.

The operations resulted in the seizure of 149 tons of soft wheat, 32 tons of hard wheat, 10 tons of food pasta, 10 tons of dry beans and 6 tons of sugar, as well as 72 thousand liters of table oil, 62 tons of milk powder and 32 tons of sugar in addition to one thousand liters of liquid milk.

According to the same security officer, 72,000 liters of table oil, 62 tons of powdered milk and 32,000 tons of liquid milk were seized, and back to the year 2021, 13,000 tons of hard wheat, 194 tons of flour, and 40 tons of semolina were seized during the year 2021, in addition to the confiscation of 169,920 liters of table oil, as well as 12,000 tons of potatoes, in the field of diverting raw materials from their privileged destination.