Large Interpol cybercrime crackdown in Africa leads to the arrest of over 1,200 suspects

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DAKAR, Senegal (AP) — A major cybercrime crackdown coordinated by Interpol has led to the arrest of 1,209 suspects across Africa and the recovery of nearly $97.4 million, the organization announced Friday.

Dubbed Operation Serengeti 2.0, the operation took place between June and August. It brought together investigators from 18 African countries and the United Kingdom to fight harmful cybercrimes including inheritance scams, ransomware and business email compromise.

Altogether, the scams targeted nearly 88,000 victims, the international police organization said in a statement.

Interpol said that authorities in Angola dismantled 25 cryptocurrency mining centers where 60 Chinese nationals had been mining cryptocurrency. The operation resulted in the confiscation of equipment worth over $37 million; the government now plans to use the equipment to support power distribution in vulnerable areas.

In Zambia, the operation dismantled an online investment scheme that defrauded more than 65,000 victims of an estimated $300 million through a fraudulent high-return cryptocurrency scam.

“The scammers lured victims into investing in cryptocurrency through extensive advertising campaigns promising high-yield returns. Victims were then instructed to download multiple apps to participate,” Interpol said. It said that 15 people had been arrested and that authorities seized evidence including domains, mobile numbers and bank accounts.

In locating the scam center in Zambia, authorities also disrupted a suspected human trafficking network, Interpol said.

Interpol also said it dismantled a transnational inheritance scam in the Ivory Coast which had originated in Germany. Victims of that scam were tricked into paying fees to claim fake inheritances, causing $1.6 million in losses.

“Despite being one of the oldest-running internet frauds, inheritance scams continue to generate significant funds for criminal organizations,” it said.

Interpol, which has 196 member countries and celebrated its centennial last year, is the world’s largest international police network to combat international crime. Headquartered in Lyons, France, it works to help national police forces communicate with each other and track suspects and criminals in areas like counterterrorism, financial crime, child pornography, cybercrime and organized crime.

In recent years it has grappled with new challenges including a growing caseload of cybercrime and child sex abuse, and increasing divisions among its member countries.

Last year in the first Operation Serengeti, Interpol arrested over 1,000 people in operations that had targeted 35,000 victims.