International operation dismantles sextortion networks in Nigeria and Ivory Coast

INTERPOL coordinated a multinational operation in August 2024 targeting online sextortion networks operating from Nigeria and Ivory Coast, resulting in the arrest of more than 70 suspects and the rescue of several child victims. The operation, code-named Jackal, brought together law-enforcement agencies from eight countries including the United States, United Kingdom, Australia and Canada, and focused on syndicates using social-media platforms to extort minors in North America, Europe and Australia. Investigators seized phones, laptops and financial records documenting thousands of victims, many of them teenage boys coerced into paying ransoms after being tricked into sharing intimate images. INTERPOL officials stated that the networks exploited encrypted messaging apps and cryptocurrency payments to obscure their operations, and that the scale of victimisation far exceeded earlier estimates.

For safeguarding agencies and parents working with children in the jurisdictions affected by Operation Jackal, detecting the conversation before a child is coerced remains the operational priority that arrests downstream cannot fully address. Guardii's real-time anti-sextortion filter identifies the signature escalation—initial rapport-building, the pivot to image requests, the introduction of threats—and surfaces the child in crisis to the adult who can intervene, whether that is a parent at home, a school safeguarding lead, or a youth-services professional, enabling immediate reporting to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children or local police. Because Guardii monitors the pattern and severity of contact rather than handing anyone a transcript, it closes the gap between the first coercive message and the moment a young person decides they have no way out, delivering the early warning that coordinated takedowns, however successful, cannot provide once a child is already targeted.