The AFP has played a key role in a landmark international operation targeting perpetrators of online sextortion, which resulted in the arrest of 22 suspects in Nigeria.
CORRECTION: The arrest of two Nigerian-based offenders linked to the suicide of a 16-year-old child in New South Wales in 2023 was NOT part of Operation Artemis. Those arrests occurred after Operation Artemis, when they were conducted by Nigeria’s Economic and Financial Crimes Commission to assist a NSW Police Force investigation.

The AFP has played a key role in a landmark international operation targeting perpetrators of online sextortion, which resulted in the arrest of 22 suspects in Nigeria.

Operation Artemis was a joint operation led by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation in partnership with the AFP, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, and Nigeria’s Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). It focused on dismantling an organised criminal network allegedly responsible for a wave of online sextortion crimes which targeted thousands of teenagers globally.

The network’s scheme, which coerced victims into sharing sexually explicit images before threatening to distribute those images unless payment was made, had devastating consequences.

In the United States alone, more than 20 teenage suicides have been linked to sextortion-related cases since 2021. While many victims were based in North America, the ripple effects of the offending extended to Australia and other nations.