Massive Interpol operation takes down 45,000 IP addresses and leads to 94 arrests

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Operation Synergia III took half a year and included 72 countries

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Interpol’s Operation Synergia III dismantles global cybercrime networks
94 arrests, 45,000+ malicious servers and IPs taken down
Crackdown spanned 72 countries, targeting scams from phishing to loan fraud

Almost 100 people were arrested, and thousands of servers taken down in a multi-month, international law enforcement operation, Interpol announced.

In a press release shared late last week, the international police force said that it coordinated Operation Synergia III, which started in mid-July last year, and concluded in late January this year. During that time, police forces from 72 countries raided key locations, seized electronic devices, and arrested people.

In total, 94 people were arrested, with another 110 individuals “under investigation”. More than 45,000 malicious IP addresses and servers were taken down, and 212 electronic devices were seized.

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China, Bangladesh, Togo

“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. 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,” commented Neal Jetton, INTERPOL’s Director of the Cybercrime Directorate.

The stint targeted different scam operations in different places. For example, law enforcement in China identified more than 33,000 phishing and fake websites, related to fake casinos and critical infrastructure (payment services, banks, government sites).

In Togo, the police arrested 10 people for social media account hacking, social engineering schemes, romance scams, and sextortion, and in Bangladesh 40 were arrested for loan scams, job scams, ID theft, and credit card fraud.

Besides a long list of national police forces, Interpol also said that a few private organizations participated as well, including Group-IB, Trend Micro, and S2W.

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It’s been a tough couple of weeks for cybercriminals, as Tycoon 2FA, one of the largest phishing-as-a-service (PhaaS) platforms in the world, was also taken down after a global coordinated law enforcement operation. This operation was led by Europol, and included police forces from Latvia, Lithuania, Portugal, Poland, Spain, and the United Kingdom.

It successfully dismantled a phishing operation that was active since at least August 2023, and enabled thousands of cybercriminals to access email and cloud-based service accounts.

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Sead Fadilpašić

Sead is a seasoned freelance journalist based in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. He writes about IT (cloud, IoT, 5G, VPN) and cybersecurity (ransomware, data breaches, laws and regulations). In his career, spanning more than a decade, he’s written for numerous media outlets, including Al Jazeera Balkans. He’s also held several modules on content writing for Represent Communications.

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