Tech
Police sinkholes 45,000 IP addresses in cybercrime crackdown
An international law enforcement action codenamed “Operation Synergia III” has sinkholed tens of thousands of IP addresses and seized servers linked to cybercrime operations worldwide.
During this Interpol-led operation, which took place between July 2025 and January 2026, authorities from 72 countries have seized 212 electronic devices and servers and made 94 arrests, with another 110 suspects still under investigation.
“Police in Togo arrested 10 suspects operating a fraud ring from a residential area. Some specialized in technical crimes such as hacking social media accounts, while others carried out social engineering schemes including romance scams and sextortion,” Interpol noted. “In Bangladesh, police arrested 40 suspects and seized 134 electronic devices related to a large range of cybercrime schemes, including loan and job scams, identify theft or credit card fraud.”
In another significant development, Chinese investigators in Macau identified over 33,000 phishing and fraudulent websites. Threat actors used these sites to impersonate casinos, as well as banks, government sites, and payment service sites, to steal victims’ credit card details and personal information.
This joint operation follows Operation Synergia II, which led to the arrest of 41 suspects between April and August 2024 and the seizure of 1,037 servers and other cybercrime infrastructure operating from 22,000 IP addresses.
During the first stage of Operation Synergia, law enforcement identified another 70 cybercrime suspects and took down another 1,300 command-and-control servers used in ransomware, phishing, and malware campaigns.
More recently, between December 8 and January 30, African police across 16 countries arrested 651 suspects and recovered over $4.3 million in another Interpol-coordinated joint police action codenamed Operation Red Card 2.0.
Two other joint actions, Operation Serengeti and Operation Africa Cyber Surge, that targeted African cybercrime in recent years have also led to thousands of arrests and the disruption or dismantling of multiple multimillion-dollar operations.
“Cybercrime in 2026 is more sophisticated and destructive than ever before, but Operation Synergia III stands as a powerful testament to what global cooperation can achieve,” Neal Jetton, INTERPOL’s Director of the Cybercrime Directorate, added on Friday.
“INTERPOL remains at the forefront of this fight, uniting law enforcement agencies and private sector experts to dismantle criminal networks, disrupt emerging threats and protect victims around the world.”
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