Interpol Flags Crypto Scam Hubs as Global Terror Finance Threat

• The Interpol General Assembly adopted a resolution designating scam centers as a top-tier security crisis.
• Operation Catalyst, a joint raid with Afripol, dismantled a $562 million crypto Ponzi scheme funding terror.
• The agency warns of a “globalization” of fraud, where human trafficking victims are forced to launder crypto.

The International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol) has formally elevated “Transnational Scam Centres” to the status of a priority global security threat. 

In a resolution adopted at the 93rd General Assembly this week, the agency warned that industrial-scale crypto fraud hubs have mutated from regional nuisances into a synchronized global crisis, fusing human trafficking with high-velocity digital money laundering.

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Operation Catalyst: The $562M Crypto-Terror Link

The urgency of the resolution follows the declassification of Operation Catalyst, a massive joint enforcement action between Interpol and Afripol. Targeting criminal networks across six African nations including Angola, Kenya, and Nigeria, the operation exposed a direct financial pipeline between online crypto fraud and terrorism.

Investigators dismantled a sophisticated cryptocurrency-based Ponzi scheme that had defrauded over 100,000 victims globally, generating estimated losses of $562 million. 

Crucially, forensic analysis revealed that proceeds from this fraud were being funneled into wallets linked to terrorism financing. “We are seeing a convergence where cyber fraud, human trafficking, and terrorism function as interconnected markets,” an Interpol spokesperson stated. 

The raids led to 83 arrests and the screening of 15,000 suspects, proving that terror cells are increasingly diversifying their revenue streams through “human trafficking-fuelled crypto fraud.”

The Globalization of ‘Pig Butchering’ 

Interpol Secretary General Valdecy Urquiza described the trend as a “globalization of criminal operations.” While originally concentrated in Southeast Asia, these fortified compounds are expanding into West Africa and other regions. 

Inside these hubs, trafficked victims, often lured by false tech job offers, are subjected to abuse and forced to execute sophisticated “pig butchering” crypto investment scams. 

The agency’s new mandate focuses on disrupting the “financial rails” of these networks, targeting the crypto on-ramps and hosting infrastructure that allow these syndicates to move stolen funds across borders instantly.

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