DOJ Targets $11 Million in Crypto as 28 Arrested in West Africa Scam Crackdown

A coordinated international law enforcement campaign targeting cryptocurrency-based scam operations in West Africa has resulted in the arrest of 28 individuals across Ghana and Nigeria and the potential freezing of approximately $11 million in crypto assets.

Global Partnership Targets Scam Infrastructure

The operation, known as “Joint Disruption Week,” launched on October 6 at the United Kingdom’s National Crime Agency headquarters London. It brought together investigators from multiple countries, major technology firms including Meta, Google, Microsoft, and OpenAI, and cryptocurrency exchanges such as Binance and Coinbase. These organizations collaborated to target not only individual scammers but also the wider criminal infrastructure fueling the schemes. The lineup covers both sides of the pipeline: the social platforms where the schemes run and the exchanges positioned to trace and intercept the money.

Authorities dismantled more than 3.7 million accounts, Pages, and Groups while sharing intelligence on more than 30 suspected scam centers. The campaign focused on disrupting the payment channels and organizational networks that allow fraudulent activity to persist, with cross coordination intended to deny scam networks the payment rails and reach they rely on.

FBI official Matthew Floyd emphasized that the goal extends beyond halting isolated scams to dismantling the criminal networks behind them. US Attorney Jeanine Ferris Pirro credited intelligence provided by Meta as a catalyst for the campaign’s success, enabling law enforcement to uncover and target key players across the region.

Raids, Arrests, and Financial Impact

Ghanaian authorities arrested 19 suspects and confiscated 303 devices, while Nigerian officials detained nine individuals and seized 53 devices. During the operation in Ghana, officers identified 117 trafficking victims who had been forced to participate in scam activities; those victims are now awaiting repatriation to Nigeria.

Law enforcement has flagged approximately $11 million in cryptocurrencies as potentially subject to seizure, though these funds have not yet been confirmed as fully confiscated. Funds flagged as potentially freezable still have to clear formal legal steps before they count as recovered, making the confirmed total the figure to track as the operation’s aftermath unfolds.

Coinbase reported intercepting losses totaling more than $415,000 and identifying over 65 active victims linked to the scams.

FBI Director Kash Patel noted that investigators arrested dozens of suspects, seized hundreds of electronic devices, and identified at least $11 million in potentially freezable funds during the operation, stating that the actions have had a direct impact on protecting lives.

West African Networks Pose Distinct Challenges

Unlike the more centralized scam networks found in Southeast Asia, West African groups operate on a less concentrated and more dispersed model. Their activities include fake job offers, romance scams, police impersonation, and fraudulent recovery services, requiring law enforcement to target a wider array of accounts and payment routes. The region has in recent years become a major hub for online fraud, and the Ghana operation showed how some centers rely on trafficked workers coerced into contacting victims.

The financial stakes are substantial. Blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis estimates that crypto scams worldwide may have resulted in more than $17 billion stolen, with impersonation fraud increasing more than fourteenfold during 2025. Even so, the $11 million in flagged funds from West Africa remains proportionally small compared with seizures from similar operations in Southeast Asia.

For additional context, the US Department of Justice previously targeted Chinese-led fraud operations in Burma and Cambodia, resulting in $700 million seized by April, and a further $52 million taken from the Chinese-language Xinbi marketplace. Those sums, totaling around $938 million, significantly outweigh the current West African figures, which are still categorized as “potentially” freezable.

Recovery Obstacles and Compliance Pressure

Scam proceeds are often layered through multiple cryptocurrency wallets and intermediaries, complicating the recovery process. TRM Labs, a blockchain intelligence company, estimated that Chinese-language laundering networks processed more than $100 billion in funds during 2025.

Time is a critical factor in seizing assets. Recent studies of Tether (USDT) freezes revealed an average delay of more than two hours between the identification of illicit activity and the freezing of funds, allowing some crypto to escape. Stablecoins such as USDT are commonly used by fraud networks because they allow dollar-pegged value to move quickly across borders at low cost. The Financial Action Task Force (FATF), an intergovernmental body that develops policies to combat money laundering and terrorist financing worldwide, including activity involving virtual assets and digital exchanges, has also highlighted issues for offshore exchanges, citing an instance in Nigeria where around $600 million was locked in a frozen wallet.

Major exchanges and stablecoin issuers, including Binance and Coinbase, now face mounting pressure to identify suspicious transactions quickly, initiate reporting, and freeze funds. These responsibilities are raising compliance and operational costs across the crypto sector.

While faster intervention may help restore confidence and protect users, there is concern that more aggressive compliance could inadvertently block the transactions of legitimate users in the effort to stem widespread criminal exploitation of digital assets.