The International Criminal Police Organisation, INTERPOL, says 58 suspects have been arrested and 263 others identified in an eight-month international operation targeting West African organised crime networks, including the Black Axe group.
The operation, codenamed Operation Jackal IV, was conducted between November 2025 and June 2026 across 22 countries on six continents.
According to INTERPOL, the operation focused on tracing illicit financial flows, disrupting money laundering activities, identifying major criminal targets, recovering assets and supporting arrests and prosecutions.
The international police body disclosed the development in a statement published on its website on Tuesday.
INTERPOL said the operation was launched in response to the growing international activities of West African criminal networks.
“These groups are responsible for a significant share of the world’s cyber-enabled financial fraud,” the organisation said, noting that their activities included romance scams, cryptocurrency and investment fraud, and business email compromise.
The operation also targeted other serious and violent crimes linked to organised criminal groups.
The Director of INTERPOL’s Financial Crime and Anti-Corruption Centre, Tomonobu Kaya, said international cooperation was crucial to dismantling the financial structures supporting organised crime.
“Operation Jackal IV demonstrates the power of international cooperation,” Kaya said.
He added, “By following illicit financial flows across borders, we are attacking the very lifeblood of organized crime and making it increasingly difficult for criminal networks to profit from their activities.”
In Argentina, investigators identified 196 people allegedly connected to a Crime-as-a-Service network suspected of providing website domains and money-laundering services to West African criminal groups. The investigation led to 17 arrests.
Authorities in South Africa also raided seven locations in Johannesburg linked to a syndicate allegedly involved in romance and investment scams targeting retirees in English-speaking countries.
INTERPOL said the South African operation resulted in 39 arrests, the seizure of $2.67m and the blocking of 257 bank accounts.
In Italy, investigators identified an individual allegedly linked to a money-laundering network operating across Europe.
The network reportedly used shell companies, remittance services and cash withdrawals to conceal the origin of illicit funds. One account was allegedly used to move €845,000 through 560 transactions involving 20 different financial instruments.
Meanwhile, Romanian authorities dismantled an alleged investment scam operation run from a call centre, arresting 11 suspects.
The operation resulted in the seizure of about €330,000 in cash and cryptocurrency, six properties and several luxury watches.
INTERPOL said the Romanian scheme was estimated to have defrauded and laundered about €143m globally.
The international police organisation also raised concerns over the increasing use of sextortion by West African organised crime groups against minors.
It said victims as young as 14 were targeted through social media, where perpetrators allegedly established relationships with them before coercing them into sending explicit images or videos.
The victims were then threatened with the distribution of the material to their contacts unless they paid money.
INTERPOL further reported that some criminal networks were increasingly outsourcing specialised criminal activities, including money laundering, to external providers through Crime-as-a-Service arrangements, some of which operate on the dark web.
Nigeria was among the 22 countries that participated in Operation Jackal IV, alongside Argentina, Australia, Austria, Canada, Côte d’Ivoire, France, Germany, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, the Netherlands, Portugal, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom and the United States.
