Police in 20 African countries and the United States arrested 1,462 suspects and recovered more than $105 million in an operation against online fraud, ransomware and extortion, Interpol said from Lyon on Thursday. Operation Serengeti III ran from 29 Jun to 31 Aug 2026 and disrupted 10,909 malicious networks.
Investigators identified 65,929 victims and linked the networks to losses of more than $385 million, Interpol said. Several investigations are still open. Two cases involve crypto directly.
In Angola, investigators dismantled two illegal crypto mining centres, arrested nine people and seized more than 2,000 mining devices along with six illegally built power transformer stations. That electrical equipment alone was worth more than $1 million, according to Interpol. Electricity is the main running cost for miners, which is why illegal operations tap the grid directly; our monthly Mining Ledger tracks what legitimate miners earn.
In Nigeria, a separate investigation into an investment fraud promoted through messaging apps led to one arrest. Investigators traced more than $2.4 million in suspected proceeds, “much of which was laundered through cryptocurrency transactions,” Interpol said. Nigerian authorities also arrested a suspect behind a phishing and business email compromise operation that had gathered about 2.1 million email addresses.
“While cybercrime is increasingly borderless, international cooperation remains one of the most effective tools for disrupting criminal networks, recovering criminal assets and protecting communities from digital harm.”
Neal Jetton, Director of Cybercrime, Interpol
In Uganda, authorities arrested 365 foreign nationals linked to two fraud rings that ran call centres with fake trading platforms aimed at pensioners in Asia.
Police also broke up a loan-app scheme in Tanzania and a car-import scam run over social media in Gabon. In the Republic of Congo, 30 people were arrested. The Record also reported the totals.
Compared with what?
Last year’s Serengeti 2.0 led to 1,209 arrests and recovered $97.4 million, Interpol said in 2025. Angola was the crypto story then too: authorities shut 25 illegal mining centres run by 60 Chinese nationals and seized 45 illegal power stations.
This year’s Angolan haul is smaller, two centres instead of 25, but the arrest count and the amount recovered across the operation are both higher. The operation was co-funded by the GLACY-e project of the European Union and the Council of Europe, and private partners including Group-IB, Kaspersky, Fortinet, Team Cymru and Meta supplied intelligence.
Risks: these are arrests and seizures announced by police, not convictions, and Interpol did not say how much of the $105 million was in crypto. The Uganda schemes relied on fake trading platforms that show gains that do not exist; anyone asked to “invest” through an app recommended by a stranger should treat it as a red flag. In Europe this week, Italian police described a mafia-linked crypto “hidden bank”.
What to watch: charges in the Nigerian and Angolan cases, and whether Interpol publishes how the recovered funds are returned to victims.
This article is for information only and is not investment advice.