An eight-month international police operation targeting West African organised crime syndicates has resulted in the arrest of 58 individuals and the identification of 263 suspects worldwide.
The crackdown, codenamed Operation Jackal IV, ran from November 2025 to June 2026 to disrupt cross-border money laundering, seize illicit assets, and dismantle high-value criminal networks.
The sweeping initiative brought together law enforcement agencies across 22 countries from six continents to counter the escalating threat posed by prominent criminal groups such as Black Axe.
These syndicates are responsible for a massive share of global cyber-enabled financial fraud, including romance scams, cryptocurrency and investment fraud, and business email compromise, alongside other violent offenses.
INTERPOL coordinated cross-border intelligence sharing, operational support, and specialized training during the drive to strengthen international financial investigations.
Tomonobu Kaya, Director of the INTERPOL Financial Crime and Anti-Corruption Centre, emphasized that following illicit financial flows across borders remains crucial to crippling organised crime and depriving syndicates of their profits.
In South Africa, law enforcement officers raided seven locations in Johannesburg linked to a syndicate executing romance and investment scams against retirees in English-speaking nations. The group operated an organized hierarchy featuring dedicated conversion and retention agents. With support from an INTERPOL Operational Support Team deployed locally, South African authorities arrested 39 individuals, seized 2.67 million US dollars, and blocked 257 bank accounts.
In Romania, officers dismantled a fraud ring operating a call centre that promised high returns on stocks and cryptocurrencies while redirecting victim funds into private electronic wallets. The network stole and laundered an estimated 143 million euros globally. Police arrested 11 suspects and confiscated approximately 330,000 euros in cash and cryptocurrency, six real estate properties, and several luxury watches.
In Argentina, investigators identified 196 individuals tied to a major Crime-as-a-Service network accused of providing website domains and money laundering services to West African syndicates. The push led to 17 arrests, supported on-site by an INTERPOL team analyzing seized data.
In Italy, law enforcement uncovered an individual linked to a pan-European laundering network using shell companies, remittance services, and cash withdrawals. A single account was found to have laundered 845,000 euros across 560 transactions using 20 separate financial instruments.
Beyond individual arrests, intelligence gathered revealed critical emerging trends, including the rising procurement of dark web Crime-as-a-Service providers to outsource core operations. Investigators also flagged a concerning rise in syndicates using sextortion to target minors as young as 14, grooming them on social media platforms before extorting ransom payments under the threat of releasing explicit material.
Participating nations in the global operation included Argentina, Australia, Austria, Canada, Côte d’Ivoire, France, Germany, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, the Netherlands, Nigeria, Portugal, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Many complex cases stemming from the operation remain under active investigation.
By: Rainbowradioonline.com/Ghana
