The Global Felony Police Group (INTERPOL) has introduced the arrest of a Nigerian suspect related to an alleged $2.4 million global fraud perpetrated via messaging apps, with proceeds allegedly laundered via cryptocurrency transactions.
This was once disclosed in a remark on Thursday, October 22, 2026.
INTERPOL described the advance as a part of one in every of Africa’s greatest cybercrime enforcement operations, which noticed regulation enforcement companies from 21 nations, together with Nigeria, arrest 1,462 suspects, disrupt 10,909 malicious networks and get well greater than $105 million in illicit budget.
INTERPOL’s operational highlights
In Nigeria, the company mentioned that government had arrested a suspect at the back of a large-scale phishing and industry e mail compromise operation that harvested device credentials and accumulated roughly 2.1 million e mail addresses.
Investigators have been additionally stated to have recovered a luxurious automobile suspected of getting been bought with legal proceeds.
- INTERPOL additionally disclosed that “a separate Nigerian investigation focused a global funding fraud scheme promoted by means of messaging apps, resulting in the arrest of a suspect.”
- In keeping with INTERPOL, monetary investigations printed that the suspect had moved greater than $2.4 million in suspected legal proceeds, a lot of which was once allegedly laundered via cryptocurrency transactions.
- “In Uganda, government dismantled two transnational fraud rings and arrested 365 international nationals related to classy on-line funding and pension fraud schemes concentrated on sufferers throughout Asia. Investigators exposed a rotating call-centre fashion the use of scripted communications, faux buying and selling platforms and fraudulent web pages to misinform pensioners into making an investment in non-existent alternatives.
- “In Angola, investigators dismantled two unlawful cryptocurrency mining centres, arresting 9 suspects and seizing greater than 2,000 cryptocurrency mining gadgets along six unlawful energy transformation stations. The seized electric infrastructure by myself was once valued at greater than USD 1 million,” the remark in part reads.
INTERPOl’s Operation Serengeti
The operation, tagged “Operation Serengeti III,” was once performed through collaborating nations between June 29 and August 31, 2026.
It focused cyber-enabled fraud, ransomware, industry e mail compromise (BEC), on-line scams and virtual extortion.
- “Government known 65,929 sufferers focused through cybercriminal networks, underscoring the dimensions and class of lately’s virtual threats. Monetary investigations related criminality to losses exceeding USD 385 million,” the remark added.
Forward of the operation, INTERPOL stated investigators from 20 African nations and the US have been supplied with actionable intelligence on suspicious domain names, IP addresses and command-and-control infrastructure related to criminality.
Operation Serengeti III was once additionally supported through private-sector companions to disrupt cybercriminal networks working throughout Africa.
The companions supplied vital intelligence, technical research and operational experience, serving to government determine goals, map legal networks and strengthen investigative actions around the area.
INTERPOL’s Director of Cybercrime, Neal Jetton, stated:
- “Cybercrime networks function with out regard for borders, exploiting generation to focus on sufferers on an unheard of scale.”
The authentic maintained that even though cybercrime was once an increasing number of without borders, global cooperation remained one of the efficient gear for disrupting legal networks, getting better legal property and protective communities from virtual hurt.
The collaborating nations have been Angola, Benin, Cameroon, Congo, Côte d’Ivoire, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Eswatini, Gabon, The Gambia, Ghana, Kenya, Mozambique, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, the US, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
Backstory
The operation follows INTERPOL’s African Cyber Danger Overview Document 2026, which pointed to a all of a sudden evolving danger panorama, with synthetic intelligence an increasing number of enabling cybercrime around the continent.
Mentioning the record, Nairametrics in the past reported that Nigeria was once known as each a big goal of cyberattacks and a key supply of cyber-enabled monetary crime in Africa.
The record discovered that whilst Nigerian govt companies and companies have been an increasing number of being focused through ransomware assaults, legal networks working from the rustic persisted to play a distinguished position in industry e mail compromise (BEC) schemes and global cash laundering.
The record additionally highlighted Nigeria as one in every of Africa’s ransomware hotspots, recording 5,822 detections in 2025.
What you will have to know
In March 2026, INTERPOL stated an estimated $442 billion was once misplaced globally to monetary fraud in 2025.
INTERPOL disclosed this in its World Monetary Fraud Danger Overview record, printed in March 2026.