Authorities across 22 countries wrapped an eight-month drive against West African cybercrime with 58 arrests this week, INTERPOL said.
Operation Jackal IV, active from November 2025 to June 2026, chased the money launderers and high-value targets behind groups like Black Axe, which the agency credits with a large slice of the world’s cyber-enabled financial fraud, from romance scams to business email compromise.
The dragnet also flagged 263 suspects for further action. Seventeen arrests trace to a crime-as-a-service layer that sold website domains and laundering services to West African syndicates, with 196 people identified across that operation.
In Romania, a call center peddling guaranteed returns on stocks and crypto turned out to be a front. Investigators tie the scheme to roughly €143M stolen and laundered worldwide. The raid netted 11 suspects, with seized assets including about €330K in cash and crypto, six properties, and a collection of luxury watches.
Seven Johannesburg properties came under raid in a separate push. The crews there ran romance and investment fraud targeting English-speaking retirees. The outfits ran like real businesses, assigning staff conversion and retention roles. Separately, one suspect surfaced in a pan-European laundering ring that shifted €845K over 560 transactions using 20 financial instruments.
Earlier Jackal editions brought 75 arrests in 2022, 103 in 2023, and 300 in 2024. INTERPOL’s financial crime director framed the current round as a strike on the profits that keep such networks alive.
