The Nigeria-based international cyber gang was taken down, and millions in seized assets and hundreds of blocked bank accounts were involved.
Interpol said Wednesday that an international law enforcement operation targeting the sprawling West African organized crime and cyber fraud ecosystem resulted in 300 arrests, $3 million in assets seized, and 720 bank accounts blocked.
The arrests — made across five continents — came as a feature of Operation Jackal III, Interpol said in a proclamation, which ran from April 10 to July 3.
“The volume of financial fraud stemming from West Africa is alarming and increasing,” Isaac Oginni, the director of Interpol’s Financial Crime and Anti-Corruption Centre, said in a statement. “This operation’s results underscore the critical need for international law enforcement collaboration to combat these extensive criminal networks.”
He added, “By identifying suspects, recovering illicit funds and putting some of West Africa’s most dangerous organized crime leaders behind bars, we are able to weaken their influence and reduce their capacity to harm communities around the world.”
The operation targeted “Black Axe,” a Nigerian “violent mafia-style gang” that has been working for a really long time and directing every kind of crimes, as per a December 2021 BBC report that inspected hacked records connected to the group.
Interpol’s statement Wednesday group the gathering as “one of the most prominent West African transnational coordinated crime syndicates” and said it took part in cyber fraud, human trafficking, drug smuggling and fierce violations inside Africa and universally.
The network of criminals utilized bank accounts all over the planet to work with misrepresentation, Interpol said, with progressing examinations in 40 nations investigating thought related money laundering activity.
U.S. authorities in 2021 arrested 33 individuals in Texas connected to the network and blamed for business email compromise, financial backer tricks and joblessness protection extortion, The Record announced at that point. Suspects all things considered were blamed for taking and washing more than $17 million from somewhere around 100 victims.
Business email compromise also known as BEC, is quite possibly of the most “financially damaging” types of internet-enabled crimes, as per the FBI. Global BEC-related misfortunes between June 2016 and December 2021 totaled $43 billion, the department said in a May 2022 public help declaration.
