Africa is plagued with illegal activities. The continent has a long history of these activities which includes gold smuggling, drug trafficking, organized crimes and armed militias. Artisanal and small-scale gold mining is in the core of these illegal activities which destruct the social framework of the societies, pollute the environment, manipulating children labor, procuring illegal weapons, etc. Egypt, being a part of Africa, is a new comer to the illegal network following the rise in the unemployment rate and low gear of the touristic activities. Even those who were involved in legal mining operations deflected to the adventurous illegal gold mining. The Eastern Desert of Egypt is the home for this illegal gold mining. The illegal miners operate on abandoned ancient gold mines and also to a certain extent on surface placer gold aided with metal detectors. This exploration technique is now mechanized with heavy loaders and excavators. Geologists and engineers are also involved in the current working groups. The excavated quartz veins possibly gold bearing find their way to processing units in Shalatin in the Red Sea governorate and in Aswan region on the eastern side of the Nile River. The former uses mercury and the latter uses mercury and cyanide. Both harm the environment and human life. The foreigners are potential participants in extracting and processing gold-bearing excavated chunks, The obtained gold is either sold to local markets and is known as “green gold” which is not refined or smuggled out of the country through a network including other countries in northeast Africa. The government is trying hard to control this illegal activities by granting the small-scale gold miners the required licence and needed security. This effort is successful to a certain extent in some regulated regions. But the illegal activities are still at a high pace in other parts of the Eastern Desert. The country is not against the dream to be rich but to ensure not harming the environment and individuals.