9 arrested, 53 devices seized in Nigeria as FBI details Operation Blackout

The FBI says nine of the 28 people arrested in a West African scam crackdown were in Nigeria, with 53 electronic devices seized. FBI Director Kash Patel also said investigators had identified $11 million in funds that could potentially be frozen across multiple countries.

Patel gave the figures in a post on his official X account under Operation Blackout, the FBI’s global campaign against scam centres. The breakdown fills a gap in Meta’s earlier release, which did not reveal how many arrests were made in Nigeria.

Read also: Meta-led crackdown removes 3.7 million accounts linked to West African scam networks, arrests 28

What the FBI says about the arrests in Nigeria

Patel thanked “Nigerian law enforcement and our partners in London for their outstanding cooperation.” He did not name the Nigerian agency involved.

The FBI said Nigerian authorities will prosecute the nine suspects for violations of Nigerian law. The remaining 19 arrests were in Ghana, where 117 victims are pending repatriation to Nigeria. Meta says those victims were trafficked, forced to work for scam operations and held in a residential compound.

Patel said the operation was aimed at tackling scam networks accused of stealing billions of dollars from Americans. He ended his post by warning criminals targeting Americans from overseas that they would be brought to justice.

How it compares with earlier action in Nigeria

The operation was hosted by the UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA) in London, with the US Department of Justice and the FBI. Law enforcement from 10 countries took part, alongside Meta and 14 other tech companies.

Nigeria has seen smaller joint actions before. In February, Meta, the NCA and the Nigeria Police Force National Cybercrime Centre disrupted a suspected scam centre in Agbor, Delta State. Police arrested seven suspects and seized 26 phones, 42 SIM cards and one laptop.

Patel’s post puts the new Nigerian figures at nine arrests and 53 devices. His post followed his warning that scam networks were expanding beyond Southeast Asia and the Middle East into Africa.

The $11 million is not recovered money. The FBI described it as potentially freezable funds identified across several countries, and the post did not say how much of it is linked to Nigeria.

Also read: Nigeria ranks 12th in FBI’s foreign cybercrime complaints with 1,219 reports in 2025