Overview
- Thursday's Interpol report said Operation First Light ran from Jan. 15 to April 30 across 97 countries and produced 5,811 arrests, $293 million in intercepted assets, and more than 142,000 identified victims.
- Thai police arrested two people after tracing a money‑laundering network and seizing a cryptocurrency wallet controlled by a 20‑year‑old that processed over $122.5 million in ten months.
- Authorities used coordinated tools including account freezes, virtual wallet blocks, 31,014 blocked bank accounts, notices and Interpol's I‑GRIP stop‑payment system to halt transfers such as a $6.6 million business‑email‑compromise payment and a nearly $372,000 transfer in Macao.
- Country‑level actions included Palau's deportation of 22 suspected operators from two connected scam centers and Eswatini police arresting 82 people and seizing devices plus a replica Brazilian police setup used for impersonation scams.
- Investigators say criminals move stolen funds into a mix of cryptocurrencies, stablecoins and low‑fee chains and use rapid cross‑chain token swaps to fragment trails, a pattern that experts warn will require sustained cross‑border analytics, prosecutions and victim outreach.