Operation Red Card 2.0: The $45 Million Takedown of Africa’s Cyber Syndicate
The industrialized scale of modern cybercrime just met the industrialized scale of international law enforcement.
In a sweeping, multi-national crackdown dubbed Operation Red Card 2.0, law enforcement agencies across 16 African countries, coordinated by INTERPOL, have dealt a massive blow to organized cybercriminal syndicates. The numbers are staggering: 651 suspects arrested, over $4.3 million in illicit funds recovered, and an estimated $45 million in financial losses linked to the disrupted operations.
This wasn’t just a raid on a single basement hacker group; it was a coordinated strike against the infrastructure of digital fraud.
The Anatomy of the Bust
Running from December 8, 2025, to January 30, 2026, Operation Red Card 2.0 targeted the specialized groups running the most lucrative scams on the continent:
The Telecom Breach (Nigeria): Police dismantled an investment fraud ring and arrested six members of a highly sophisticated gang. Their crime? Using stolen employee credentials to successfully breach a major telecom provider, demonstrating a dangerous escalation from consumer scams to enterprise-level intrusion.
The Investment Lures (Kenya): Investigators apprehended 27 suspects operating vast fraud networks. These groups weaponized social media and messaging platforms to funnel victims into complex, fake investment schemes.
Predatory Mobile Apps (Côte d’Ivoire): 58 suspects were arrested in a crackdown on predatory mobile loan applications—apps designed to trap victims with hidden fees, abusive debt-collection practices, and data extortion.
In total, authorities seized 2,341 devices and took down 1,442 malicious websites, domains, and command-and-control servers.
The Evolution of the Threat
The success of Operation Red Card 2.0 (following the arrest of 306 suspects in the first iteration last year) highlights a critical shift in the cybercrime landscape.
We are no longer just dealing with email scammers. These are organized syndicates running compartmentalized operations:
Recruitment: Actively recruiting young people to run phishing and identity theft rings (as seen in the Nigerian busts).
Infrastructure: Maintaining thousands of fake social media profiles and malicious domains to manufacture credibility.
Enterprise Targeting: The use of stolen credentials to breach a telecom provider proves these groups are hunting for access to core infrastructure, likely to enable SIM-swapping at scale or mass data exfiltration.
CodeAintel Insight: The takedown of 1,442 malicious domains is a massive operational disruption, but it is temporary. The real victory here is the intelligence gathered from the 2,341 seized devices. The analytics extracted from those phones and laptops will likely fuel ‘Operation Red Card 3.0’. For enterprises, the telecom breach is the loudest warning: if your employees’ credentials are compromised, your perimeter is already gone.
Source: https://www.interpol.int/News-and-Events/News/2026/Major-operation-in-Africa-targeting-online-scams-nets-651-arrests-recovers-USD-4.3-million