U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro said a tip from Meta set the operation in motion. The Justice Department, the FBI and the United Kingdom’s National Crime Agency then joined 15 technology companies and law-enforcement agencies from 10 countries in what authorities described as the first coordinated operation focused specifically on West African scam networks.
Investigators assembled at the National Crime Agency’s London headquarters beginning 6 October to share intelligence on scam infrastructure, operators and financial transactions. They and industry partners exchanged information across jurisdictions in real time during the week.
That week brought 28 arrests in Ghana and Nigeria. Authorities detained 19 people in Sasaabi, an Accra suburb, and arrested nine people in Nigeria for violations of Nigerian law.
Authorities also rescued 117 people held against their will at a residential compound in Ghana and compelled to take part in scams. The victims had experienced malnutrition and physical and psychological abuse, and were pending repatriation to Nigeria.
In Ghana, authorities seized 303 electronic devices. Nigerian authorities seized 53.
More than 3.7 million accounts, pages and groups aimed at people in the US, UK and elsewhere were removed. Private-sector partners identified more than $11 million in funds that could potentially be frozen.
The FBI said the wider Operation Blackout campaign against overseas scam centres had seized roughly $17 billion in assets and crypto, when it announced the results on 13 October 2026. The campaign involved coordination among more than 20 countries.
The agency said it had warned more than 10,000 Americans and prevented an estimated $670 million in losses.
The networks used cryptocurrency investment fraud, impersonation of law-enforcement officers and extortion, authorities said. They also used fraudulent job offers, romance scams, and impersonation of law-enforcement and military personnel.
FBI Director Kash Patel said: “We arrested dozens of criminal actors, seized hundreds of devices, identified at least $11 million in potentially freezable funds, and truly saved lives.”
The arrests and rescues are enforcement outcomes rather than findings of criminal liability. The information released identifies the scale of the operation and the conduct investigators sought to disrupt, while the legal cases against those arrested remain separate questions.
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