Operation Serengeti III has disrupted 10,909 malicious networks and led to the arrest of 1,462 suspected cybercriminals across Africa. The Interpol-coordinated crackdown targeted business email compromise, ransomware and online fraud.
Authorities from 21 countries participated in the operation between June 29 and August 31. Together, they recovered more than $105 million in illicit funds.
Investigators identified 65,929 victims and estimated their combined financial losses at more than $385 million.
Operation Serengeti III Targets Multiple Forms of Fraud
The operation brought together national law enforcement agencies and private cybersecurity companies to investigate criminal activity across borders.
Alongside ransomware and email-based fraud, investigators targeted malicious mobile lending applications, fraudulent vehicle imports and cryptocurrency investment scams.
Cybersecurity partners included Team Cymru, Kaspersky, Group-IB and Fortinet. These companies supplied intelligence and technical expertise to help authorities identify infrastructure and suspects.
However, the arrest figures concern suspected offenders. They do not represent convictions.
Uganda Arrests Follow Investment and Pension Fraud Investigations
In Uganda, authorities dismantled two transnational fraud rings and arrested 365 people.
Investigators suspect those individuals had links to online investment and pension fraud operations. The cases formed one of the largest reported arrest totals within the wider crackdown.
The supplied announcement does not specify how much of the operation’s total financial losses came from these schemes.
Angola Seizes More Than 2,000 Mining Devices
Meanwhile, authorities in Angola targeted illegal cryptocurrency mining centers.
Officers arrested nine suspects and seized more than 2,000 mining devices. The action extended the operation beyond scams aimed directly at individual victims.
However, the available account does not detail the facilities’ operating methods or quantify their proceeds.
Nigerian Suspect Linked to Large Phishing Operation
In Nigeria, authorities arrested one person suspected of running a large-scale phishing and business email compromise operation.
According to Interpol, the operation harvested software credentials and accumulated approximately 2.1 million email addresses.
That address count does not establish that 2.1 million people suffered account compromises or financial losses. Instead, it describes the scale of the email collection linked to the investigation.
The Nigerian case illustrates how investigators also pursued infrastructure and data collections that could support further fraud.
Private Partners Help Map Criminal Infrastructure
Cybersecurity companies provided information about suspicious domains, IP addresses and command-and-control systems.
Investigators then used that intelligence to map connections between malicious infrastructure and identify potential suspects.
This support helped authorities examine the networks behind criminal activity, alongside individual reports of fraud. It also enabled coordinated action against infrastructure that supported attacks across multiple locations.
Latest Crackdown Builds on Earlier Serengeti Operations
Operation Serengeti III follows two previous Africa-focused enforcement campaigns.
The first took place across 19 African countries between September and October 2024. It resulted in 1,006 arrests, the disruption of 134,089 malicious infrastructure assets and networks, and the recovery of approximately $44 million.
Subsequently, Operation Serengeti 2.0 ran between June and August 2025. Authorities reported 1,209 arrests, the dismantling of 11,432 malicious infrastructure assets and the seizure of $97.4 million.
The latest operation reported higher arrest and recovered-fund totals than either earlier campaign. However, the infrastructure figures use differing descriptions, so they should not automatically serve as a direct measure of each operation’s effectiveness.
Across the latest investigations, authorities recovered substantial funds while documenting losses that exceeded $385 million. The results highlight both the reach of coordinated enforcement and the financial damage associated with the targeted crimes.
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