South Africa

So what?  The operation’s scale confirms West African fraud networks now run as globally distributed financial-crime infrastructure rather than geographically contained rings, laundering proceeds through mainstream banking and crypto rails in Europe and southern Africa alike. The same account-blocking and asset-forfeiture playbook used here is exportable to trade-based laundering cases — watch whether any of the 263 identified-but-not-arrested suspects surface in future customs or bulk-cash seizures as the net closes.