At least 1 000 cybercriminals, including 29 in Zimbabwe, have been arrested while more than 130 000 properties and gadgets have been recovered in operations which were conducted by the International Criminal Police Organisations (Interpol) in Africa targeting cybercrimes.
The Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) is currently hosting the Africa Cyber Surge Operation debrief meeting for Interpol, Southern Africa Regional Chiefs Co-operation Organisations (SARPCCO), African Union Mechanism for Police Co-operation (AFRIPOL) member states in Harare.
Zimbabwe has in recent weeks witnessed a surge in cybercrimes with people losing thousands to cyberterrorists.
The meeting started yesterday and is expected to end tomorrow.
It comes after continental law enforcement organisations recently conducted two operations code-named Africa Cyber Surge 3.0 and Operation Serengeti in Africa.
Among those who attended the meeting were the Police Commissioner General Godwin Matanga, Interpol Assistant Director cybercrime operations Mr Enrique Hernandez, Head of Interpol Regional Bureau Harare Mr Sello Moerane, AFRIPOL senior Cybercrime Officer Mr Omar Daas and Criminal Investigations Department Chief Director Commissioner Jealous Nyabasa, among other senior police officers.
At least 36 other participants attending the meeting were drawn from 19 different Interpol member states in Africa. Six are from the SARPCCO region.
The Africa Cyber Surge Operation is a multinational cybercrime suppression operation that seeks to support Interpol and AFRIPOL member countries by developing actionable information along broad themes linked to the region.
In an interview, AFRIPOL senior cybercrime officer, Mr Omar Daas, said they were holding a debriefing meeting.
"There was already a meeting at the beginning of September 2024 in Ghana where we launched this operation called Africa Cyber Surge Operation 3.0.
"This operation is an alliance with the Third Edition because we launched the First edition in 2022, the Second edition in 2023 and in 2024, the Third edition that showed the capacities of the member states of the African Union to fight effectively against cybercrime in Africa."
He said during the first two operations, a few arrests were made but this year, the number of arrests exceeded 1 000.
"We have more than 1 000 criminals arrested in this third Edition of Africa Cyber Surge Operation.
"It is impressive. We have never reached this number. So, it is a big, big, big event for us to celebrate in Zimbabwe," Mr Daas said.
The ZRP director of Forensic Science, Chief Superintendent Alford Nyasha, said the operation involved 19 African countries."This operation was sponsored by Interpol and each country was given specific tasks to handle, to deal with cybercrime issues that are affecting their countries, their jurisdictions.
"And yes, Zimbabwe was also given tasks which we were looking at phishing domains, malicious infrastructure, and other cyber breaches that could have been happening within Zimbabwe.
"And as the law enforcement agents, we were tasked to investigate and take down, and even go further to disrupt such activities that we felt had a bearing on the national security of our country," he said.
Chief Supt Nyasha said in Zimbabwe, 29 people were arrested and a number of vehicles which were bought through the proceeds of cybercriminal activities were recovered.
"Most of these cases are still pending in the courts, as we are also still trying to get more witnesses who were conned by these cybercriminals to come and testify," he said.
"We managed to recover four vehicles, which were bought by the criminals."
Interpol Assistant Director Cybercrime Operations Mr Enrique Hernandez said the operations brought together African countries to work together against the major threats that they had identified.
"So, this year it was mainly focused on ransomware, on online scams, and in BEC (Business email compromise).
"And the objective of this meeting is to bring together all the investigators from the 19 countries that have been part of the operation," he said.
The Head of Interpol Regional Bureau Harare, Mr Moerane, said since its inception in 2021, the Africa Joint Operations against Cybercrimes (AfJOC) has been instrumental in shaping Africa's response to cybercrimes and terrorists.
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"Our efforts as law enforcement are characterised by the spirit of co-operation and collaboration. A
"FJOC enforces that spirit with pragmatic interventions and operations and have since shaped the way operations are done in general".
For context, Mr Moerane said, the first Africa Cyber Surge Operations in 2022 attracted participation from 27 African member countries, and uncovered huge financial losses suffered by companies, businesses, and individuals due to various forms of cybercrimes.
"Successes included the takedown and clean-up of malicious infrastructure linked to botnet activities, and the dissemination of mass phishing, spam, and online extortion activities to potential victims.
"In total, scam and fraud activities amounted to US$800 000," he said.
Mr Moerane said in comparison, the second Cyber Surge Operations of 2023 had fewer participating countries but uncovered financial losses worth US$40 million, indicating a 5 000 percent increase in value of uncovered crimes -- owing to cross-sector collaboration with private institutions and key regional stakeholders, law enforcement agencies, and the private sector such as Internet Service Providers (ISPs).
