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Police in Argentina, Chile, Colombia and Spain arrested about 25 people suspected of links to Anonymous during a 2012 operation called Operation Unmask. INTERPOL supported cross-border coordination; national police made the arrests. The available accounts report allegations and arrests, not proof of guilt.
What was Operation Unmask?
INTERPOL’s 2012 annual report identifies Operation Unmask as a joint effort by police in Argentina, Chile, Colombia and Spain. It followed coordinated cyberattacks originating in those countries against Colombian government websites. INTERPOL says the operation resulted in the arrest of “some 25 people” believed to be linked to Anonymous.
The report also says authorities seized about 250 items of IT equipment, as well as mobile phones, payment cards and cash. These are figures in INTERPOL’s institutional account of the operation.
Where were arrests made, and what was alleged?
An Associated Press report republished by Global News gave the arrest counts as 10 in Argentina, six in Chile, five in Colombia and four in Spain. It said the investigation began in mid-February and that searches took place at 40 locations in 15 cities, with IT equipment and mobile phones seized. These are contemporaneous reported figures, rather than a separate court-confirmed tally.
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Al Jazeera reported that authorities suspected plans for coordinated cyberattacks on public and private institutions. Reported potential targets included Colombia’s defence ministry and presidential websites, Chile’s Endesa electricity company and national library, and other institutions. Those plans and targets were allegations attributed to authorities and reporting; the cited accounts do not establish that the suspected attacks were carried out.
Did INTERPOL arrest the suspects?
No. National police carried out the arrests. INTERPOL supported coordination across borders; it did not have powers of arrest or investigation, as contemporaneous reporting noted. The distinction matters: INTERPOL’s role was cooperation and support, not exercising the national police powers used in the operation.
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Were the people convicted, and what happened afterward?
The sources describe the arrested people as suspected of links to Anonymous. An arrest or suspected affiliation is not a conviction, and the cited accounts do not establish guilt. They also do not provide complete individual case outcomes, such as whether each person was charged, tried or convicted. It would therefore be inaccurate to describe all 25 as convicted hackers or to claim a single outcome for the group.
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What INTERPOL said about the operation
Bernd Rossbach, whom Al Jazeera identified as INTERPOL’s acting director of police services, said: “This operation shows that crime in the virtual world does have real consequences for those involved, and that the Internet cannot be seen as a safe haven for criminal activity.” That was Rossbach’s contemporaneous view of the operation, not a judicial finding about the people arrested.
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