{"id":24014,"date":"2026-02-20T11:06:19","date_gmt":"2026-02-20T09:06:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jhb-webdevelopers\/channelafrica\/news\/interpol-operation-arrests-651-in-africa-cybercrime-sweep\/"},"modified":"2026-02-27T16:34:46","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T14:34:46","slug":"interpol-operation-arrests-651-in-africa-cybercrime-sweep","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/interpol-operation-arrests-651-in-africa-cybercrime-sweep\/","title":{"rendered":"Interpol operation arrests 651 in Africa cybercrime sweep"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A major operation led by Interpol has resulted in 651 arrests across 16 African countries, dismantling cybercrime networks linked to losses estimated at \u20ac38 million ($44.7 million) .<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The crackdown, known as \u201cRed Card 2.0\u201d and co-ordinated through the African Joint Operation against Cybercrime, targeted online fraud schemes built on fake high-return investments, bogus cryptocurrency platforms, mobile scams and phishing attacks designed to steal personal data.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Angolan academic and political analyst Dr.Almeida Henriques said the scale of the operation sends a strong signal about the need for coordinated continental action.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis operation shows that cybercrime is no longer isolated or local. It is organised, transnational and strategic. African institutions must respond with the same level of coordination,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&#8211;ChannelAfrica&#8211;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":15219,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[26],"class_list":["post-24014","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-general_news","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"A major operation led by Interpol has resulted in 651 arrests across 16 African countries","published_date":"2026-02-20 13:05:27","news_description":"A major operation led by Interpol has resulted in 651 arrests across 16 African countries","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/24014","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/24014\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26823,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/24014\/revisions\/26823"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15219"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24014"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=24014"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}