Interpol Operation Serengeti III resulted in 1,462 arrests, the disruption of 10,909 malicious networks and the recovery of more than $105 million in illicit funds, the international police organization said Oct. 22. Those are Interpol’s operational figures, not findings of guilt against the people arrested.
The operation ran from June 29 through Aug. 31 and brought together agencies in 21 countries: 20 African countries and the United States. It targeted cyber-enabled fraud, ransomware, business email compromise, online scams and digital extortion.
Interpol said authorities identified 65,929 victims. Its financial investigations linked the criminal activity to losses exceeding $385 million. Several associated investigations remain open while authorities seek additional suspects, follow suspected proceeds and examine seized digital evidence.
What did Operation Serengeti III target?
The operation focused on criminal groups using online services and internet infrastructure for fraud and other cyber-enabled offenses. Before the enforcement action, Interpol gave investigators intelligence on suspicious domains, IP addresses and command-and-control infrastructure linked to criminal activity. Private-sector partners provided intelligence, technical analysis and operational support, according to Interpol.
The listed partners included Group-IB, Kaspersky, Fortinet, Team Cymru, Uppsala Security, Cybercrime Atlas, Meta, the Global Anti-Scam Alliance and Zimbabwe’s Postal and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority. Team Cymru separately said it supplied infrastructure intelligence, a first-party account of its own role rather than independent confirmation of the operation-wide totals.
Cases cited by Interpol
In Uganda, authorities dismantled two transnational fraud rings and arrested 365 foreign nationals, Interpol said. The agency said the groups used rotating call centers, scripts, fake trading platforms and fraudulent websites to persuade pensioners in Asia to invest in nonexistent opportunities.
Angolan investigators shut down two illegal cryptocurrency-mining centers, arrested nine suspects and seized more than 2,000 mining devices, Interpol said. They also seized six illegal power transformation stations, with the electrical infrastructure valued by Interpol at more than $1 million.
In Nigeria, authorities arrested one suspect in a phishing and business-email-compromise investigation involving harvested software credentials and roughly 2.1 million email addresses, according to Interpol. Investigators recovered a luxury vehicle they suspected had been bought with criminal proceeds.
A separate Nigerian investigation into an investment-fraud scheme promoted through messaging apps led to one arrest. Interpol said financial investigators found more than $2.4 million in suspected proceeds, much of it laundered through cryptocurrency transactions.
Interpol also reported a malicious loan-app scheme dismantled in Tanzania, a social-media vehicle-import fraud network disrupted in Gabon, and 30 arrests tied to a cybercrime operation in the Republic of Congo. The participating countries also included Angola, Benin, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Eswatini, Gambia, Ghana, Kenya, Mozambique, Rwanda, Senegal, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
This story draws on original reporting from The Record.
