Interpol recovers $105 million in Africa cybercrime sweep

Interpol says police across 21 countries arrested 1,462 suspects and recovered more than $105 million in a coordinated cybercrime crackdown centered on Africa. The effort, called Operation Serengeti III, also disrupted 10,909 malicious networks. Crypto appeared on both sides of the ledger: as a laundering tool for scammers and as the product of illegal mining farms running on stolen power. Inside Operation Serengeti III The operation ran from June 29 to August 31, 2026. Interpol announced the results on Thursday, October 22. Twenty of the participating countries were in Africa. The United States was the 21st. The target list covered most of modern online crime: ransomware, online scams, business email compromise, digital extortion and other cyber-enabled fraud. The headline recovery figure is large. The losses behind it are larger. Financial investigations tied the disrupted networks to approximately $385 million in losses, spread across 65,929 identified victims. Where crypto fits in Two country-level cases stand out for anyone who follows digital assets. In Angola, authorities shut down two illegal crypto mining centers. Nine suspects were arrested. Police seized more than 2,000 ...