Operation Serengeti III: 1,462 Arrested and $105 Million Recovered in Africa-Wide Cybercrime Crackdown

More than 1,400 suspected cybercriminals were arrested across Africa this summer in an annual crackdown on online fraud, ransomware and business email compromise (BEC), Interpol announced. The operation, called Serengeti III, disrupted more than 10,000 malicious computer networks and recovered more than $105 million in illicit funds. Just under 66,000 victims were identified, with combined losses above $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 linked to criminal activity. The largest number of arrests was in Uganda, where authorities dismantled two transnational fraud rings and arrested 365 foreign nationals. Interpol said these groups ran call centres using scripts, fake trading platforms and fraudulent websites to persuade pensioners in Asia to put money into fictional investments. Separate local reporting described arrests of people from South and East Asia, though it is unclear whether those were part of the same operation.

In Angola, investigators shut down two illegal cryptocurrency mining centres, arresting nine people and seizing more than 2,000 mining devices. Police also confiscated six illegal power transformation stations, which Interpol valued at more than $1 million on their own. Earlier operations in 2024 and 2025 also targeted gangs tied to millions of dollars in global losses.