African police make over 300 arrests in international operation against cybercrime

African law enforcement authorities have arrested 306 suspects as part of an international operation targeting cyberattacks and online scams.

The arrests were part of Operation Red Card, which aimed to disrupt and dismantle cross-border criminal networks that have caused significant harm to more than 5,000 individuals and businesses in banking, investment, and messaging scams.

In addition to the hundreds of arrests, African police officers seized 1,842 devices that were used to deploy cybercriminal activities.

The Nigerian police detained 130 people, including 113 foreign nationals, and confiscated 26 vehicles, 16 houses, 39 plots of land, and 685 devices.

Law enforcement authorities from South Africa arrested 40 individuals and seized more than 1,000 SIM cards, along with 53 desktops and towers linked to a sophisticated SIM box fraud scheme. This setup reroutes international calls as local ones and is often used by criminals in large-scale SMS phishing attacks.

Police officers in Zambia apprehended 14 suspects who allegedly hacked into victims’ phones. They would then send a message containing a malicious link that, when clicked, would install malware on the device. This allowed the attackers to take over their victims’ messaging accounts and phone, and give them access to banking apps.

Authorities in Rwanda made 45 arrests for their involvement in social engineering scams that caused over $305,000 in damages in 2024 alone. In total, $103,043 was recovered and 292 devices were seized.

“The success of Operation Red Card demonstrates the power of international cooperation in combating cybercrime, which knows no borders and can have devastating effects on individuals and communities. The recovery of significant assets and devices, as well as the arrest of key suspects, sends a strong message to cybercriminals that their activities will not go unpunished,” Neal Jetton, Director of the Cybercrime Directorate at Interpol, says in a statement.

Operation Red Card was supported by Interpol. Group-IB, Kaspersky, and Trend Micro provided insights into the modus operandi of the criminals. Law enforcement authorities from Benin, Côte d'Ivoire, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa, Togo, and Zambia made the arrests and seized devices and other properties.