First posted on Instagram · @profilopolitics
The FBI's global war on the scam compounds that prey on Americans has torn through West Africa. In coordinated raids across Ghana and Nigeria during a London-based Joint Disruption Week, authorities arrested 28 alleged scammers, seized more than 350 devices and identified at least $11 million in potentially freezable funds, the FBI and the Justice Department announced on October 13.
FBI Director Kash Patel said the raids also freed more than 100 trafficked workers — people forced to work the scams — and located over 100 potential scam victims in the United States, whose reported losses have passed $10 million.
“We are dismantling scam centers around the world while genuinely saving lives.”
Nineteen suspects were arrested in Ghana and nine in Nigeria, where authorities are expected to prosecute them under Nigerian law. In Ghana, 117 trafficking victims are now awaiting repatriation to Nigeria. The bureau says it also warned more than 10,000 Americans who were being targeted by the networks, preventing an estimated $670 million in losses — many of the victims are senior citizens.
Meta worked alongside the agencies, removing more than 3.7 million Facebook and Instagram accounts, Pages and Groups tied to the fraud networks and sharing intelligence on more than 30 suspected scam centers. “Scams are a global threat that require a global response,” said Chris Sonderby, Meta's vice president and deputy general counsel.
The raids are the latest strike in Operation Blackout, the FBI's campaign against the compounds, and they build on the bureau's October 8 operation in Ghana, when agents and Ghana police stormed a single compound, detained 130 people and seized 300 devices. Since the campaign began, the FBI puts seizures at roughly $17 billion, with hundreds of arrests and thousands of trafficked workers freed — while the scam operations migrate out of Southeast Asia and the Middle East into Africa and adopt AI voice cloning to sound more convincing.
“That is why these scam compounds are migrating into central and sub-Saharan Africa — and why we are already positioned there to dismantle them,” Patel said.
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