Operation Serengeti III: INTERPOL Disrupts Nearly 11,000 Cybercrime Networks and Arrests 1,462 Suspects

INTERPOL has announced the results of Operation Serengeti III, a coordinated crackdown that ran from June 29 to August 31, 2026. Law enforcement agencies from 21 countries, including several African nations and the United States, arrested 1,462 suspects, disrupted 10,909 malicious networks and recovered more than $105 million in illicit funds.

Authorities identified 65,929 victims targeted by the criminal networks. INTERPOL said financial investigations linked the activity to losses exceeding USD 385 million. Private sector partners supported the work. Group-IB said it supplied threat intelligence on phishing kits, botnets and other malicious resources hosted in Africa or used to attack targets in the region. Team Cymru's Jacomo Piccolini said criminals must build, connect and maintain infrastructure, and that those activities create opportunities to find them.

This is the third wave of the operation. Two earlier waves, in September and October 2024 and in June to August 2025, led to more than 2,000 arrests. INTERPOL's director of cybercrime, Neal Jetton, said cybercrime is increasingly borderless, and that international cooperation remains one of the most effective tools for disrupting criminal networks and recovering assets. This article is based on the opening of the source report, so further operational details are not covered here.