BAHRAIN was among 97 countries involved in a global anti-fraud operation that led to the arrest of 5,811 individuals and the interception of $293 million in illicit assets, Interpol announced yesterday.
Operation First Light 2026, carried out from January 15 to April 30, focused on combating social engineering scams and associated money laundering activities.
Social engineering is a broad term that refers to techniques that exploit a person’s trust to obtain money or confidential information.
This type of fraud can include business email compromise, sextortion, as well as romance, impersonation or investment scams.
Lyon-based Interpol mentioned Bahrain in the list of participating countries alongside Kuwait, the UAE, Oman and Qatar.
After an initial period of intelligence collection and exchange, the countries took part in more than three months of operational activities.
“This included proactive action against high-value targets, raiding identified premises, blocking or freezing bank accounts and virtual wallets, requesting Interpol notices and diffusions, and utilising the agency’s Global Rapid Intervention of Payments (I-GRIP) – a stop-payment mechanism that facilitates the swift blocking of illicit financial flows of both fiat and virtual assets,” said an Interpol statement.
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