ASEANAPOL Secretariat Joins INTERPOL Operation FIRSTLIGHT to Combat Financial Crime

ASEANAPOL Secretariat Joins INTERPOL Operation FIRSTLIGHT to Combat Financial Crime

On 15 December 2025, the ASEANAPOL Secretariat participated in the 15th INTERPOL Anti-Transnational Financial Crime Working Group Meeting under Operation FIRSTLIGHT 2025/2026. The virtual meeting brought together more than 180 participants from INTERPOL National Central Bureaus (NCBs), international organizations, and partner entities worldwide.

The ASEANAPOL Secretariat delegation comprised Colonel of Police David Martinez Vinluan, Executive Director; Senior Superintendent Huntal Tambunan, Director of Police Services; Senior Lieutenant Colonel Nguyen Huu Ngoc, Director of Plans and Programmes; and Deputy Superintendent of Police Abdul Hamid Abdul Hashim, Police Service Officer I.

The meeting opened with welcoming remarks by Ms. Amanda Laevchhia, Principal Project Assistant at the INTERPOL Financial Crime and Anti-Corruption Centre (IFCACC), followed by opening statements from Mr. Nicholas Court, Director of IFCACC, and Mr. Wanpeng Zhao, Deputy Director-General of the International Cooperation Department, Ministry of Public Security, the key sponsor of the programme.

Operation FIRSTLIGHT is a long-standing INTERPOL-led global operation targeting social engineering-driven scams, including telecom fraud, phishing, and business email compromise (BEC). Recent phases of the operation resulted in 3,950 arrests, the seizure of USD 257 million in criminal assets, and the identification of 14,643 additional suspects across 61 countries.

Looking ahead to 2025–2026, law enforcement efforts will increasingly focus on AI-assisted fraud, with experts warning that emerging threats such as deepfake-enabled scams will dominate the financial crime landscape. A key initiative during this phase is the Silver Notice pilot project, aimed at enhancing the ability of member countries to trace, identify, and recover criminal proceeds linked to transnational financial crimes.

As the permanent body of the ASEAN Chiefs of Police, the ASEANAPOL Secretariat reaffirms its readiness to support Operation FIRSTLIGHT across Southeast Asia, in close coordination with INTERPOL and global partners. The Secretariat will continue to align its efforts with international initiatives to address emerging financial crime threats, including cyber scams, money laundering, illegal trade, and terrorism financing, with particular focus on dismantling scam centres linked to trafficking in persons for forced criminality.

#INTERPOL
#OperationFIRSTLIGHT
#FinancialCrime
#CyberScams
#AntiScam
#lawenforcementcooperation