Authorities arrested thousands of suspected cybercriminals and froze millions of dollars in illicit assets during a global law enforcement operation targeting online fraud and money laundering networks.
Coordinated by INTERPOL, Operation First Light 2026 brought together police forces from 97 countries between January 15 and April 30. The campaign focused on dismantling criminal groups behind business email compromise (BEC), romance scams, investment fraud, impersonation schemes, sextortion, and other forms of social engineering.
Global Operation Nets Thousands of Suspects
Operation First Light 2026 resulted in the arrest of 5,811 suspects and the seizure of approximately $293 million in criminal assets.
Investigators also identified more than 142,000 victims worldwide, analyzed 152,808 cases, froze 31,014 bank accounts, and uncovered 15,606 additional suspects linked to fraud networks.
INTERPOL said officers carried out coordinated raids against high-value targets, froze bank accounts and cryptocurrency wallets, and issued international notices to support ongoing investigations.
Authorities also used INTERPOL’s Global Rapid Intervention of Payments (I-GRIP) system to quickly block suspicious financial transfers involving both fiat currencies and digital assets.
According to INTERPOL, the operation highlights how social engineering scams have evolved into a major international threat affecting individuals, businesses, and governments alike.
International Cooperation Drives Success
INTERPOL coordinated the operation with financial support from China’s Ministry of Public Security and assistance from regional law enforcement organizations, including ASEANAPOL, GCCPOL, and Europol.
The agency said close cooperation between participating countries was critical to identifying suspects, disrupting financial networks, and preventing stolen funds from being moved across borders.
Part of a Broader Cybercrime Campaign
Operation First Light follows several large-scale international cybercrime investigations led by INTERPOL in recent years.
Operation Synergia II, conducted between April and August 2024, resulted in 41 arrests and the seizure of 1,037 servers linked to cybercriminal infrastructure operating across more than 22,000 IP addresses.
The first phase of Operation Synergia also led investigators to identify 70 additional suspects and dismantle 1,300 command-and-control servers used in ransomware, phishing, and malware campaigns.
INTERPOL has also coordinated Operation Serengeti, Operation Africa Cyber Surge, Operation Red Card 2.0, and Operation Synergia III, all of which targeted organized cybercrime groups operating across multiple regions.
Between December and January, Operation Red Card 2.0 led to the arrest of 651 suspects across 16 African countries. Meanwhile, Operation Synergia III disrupted cybercrime infrastructure worldwide by seizing servers and sinkholing tens of thousands of malicious IP addresses.
INTERPOL Warns Fraud Remains a Global Threat
Tomonobu Kaya, Director of INTERPOL’s Financial Crime and Anti-Corruption Centre, said criminal organizations continue to exploit human psychology through increasingly sophisticated scams.
He added that international cooperation remains essential to combating cyber-enabled financial crime, dismantling organized criminal networks, and disrupting the money laundering operations that fund them.
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