Interpol's Africa operation arrested 1,462 people and recovered over 105 million USD

Interpol announced that from June 29 to August 31, 2026, it coordinated law enforcement agencies from 21 countries to carry out Operation "Serengeti III," targeting online fraud, ransomware, business email compromise, online scams, and digital extortion. The operation resulted in the arrest of 1,462 suspects, the dismantling of 10,909 malicious networks, and the recovery of over $105 million in illegal funds. Investigations confirmed 65,929 victims, with financial investigations linking losses exceeding $385 million.

In Angola, law enforcement dismantled two illegal cryptocurrency mining centers, arrested 9 suspects, and seized over 2,000 cryptocurrency mining devices and 6 illegal power transformer stations, with the seized power infrastructure alone valued at over $1 million. In Nigeria, authorities arrested a suspect linked to large-scale phishing and business email compromise, with the operation collecting approximately 2.1 million email addresses and software credentials; another investigation uncovered an international investment scam promoted through instant messaging applications that transferred over $2.4 million in suspected criminal proceeds, most of which were laundered through cryptocurrency transactions.

Neal Jetton, head of cybercrime at Interpol, stated that cybercrime networks disregard borders and exploit technology to target victims on an unprecedented scale; the operation demonstrates that despite the increasingly borderless nature of cybercrime, international cooperation remains an effective tool for dismantling criminal networks, recovering criminal assets, and protecting communities. The operation received support from private sector partners such as Group-IB, Kaspersky, Fortinet, and Meta, and was co-funded by the EU and the joint project GLACY-e of the European Commission.