Interpol-led African crackdown nets 1,462 arrests and $105 million

Past-week coverage · Original source published 2026-10-22.

Interpol says a coordinated crackdown across Africa this summer led to 1,462 arrests and the recovery of more than $105 million in illicit funds, according to the announcement it made on Thursday.

The operation, called Serengeti III, targeted gangs behind online fraud, ransomware and business email compromise. Interpol said investigators disrupted more than 10,000 malicious computer networks. Just under 66,000 victims were identified, with cumulative losses exceeding $385 million.

Twenty African countries took part alongside the United States. Interpol supplied investigators with intelligence on suspicious domains, IP addresses and command-and-control servers tied to criminal activity.

The largest arrest count Interpol detailed came from Uganda, where authorities dismantled two transnational fraud rings and arrested 365 foreign nationals. Interpol said the groups ran call centers using scripts, fake trading platforms and fraudulent websites to persuade pensioners in Asia to put money into fictional investments. A Ugandan internal affairs spokesman said most of those held were from South and East Asia.

In Angola, investigators shut two illegal cryptocurrency mining centers, arresting nine people and seizing more than 2,000 mining devices. Nigerian authorities arrested a suspect accused of running a phishing and BEC operation that harvested software credentials and amassed about 2.1 million email addresses.

Interpol said several investigations remain open.

For defenders, the cases point to familiar channels: credential phishing, BEC and investment lures. Organizations should treat harvested credentials as compromised, enforce phishing-resistant multi-factor authentication where possible, and review mailbox rules and payment-change requests with out-of-band verification.