Interpol says it has arrested 262 suspects in an international crackdown on people smuggling networks operating across Mediterranean and Atlantic routes off West Africa. The operation, called Communis Maris, ran from 5 to 8 October with law-enforcement agencies from 16 countries involved. Interpol said investigators identified 41 organised criminal groups and opened 434 new investigations. Of those arrested, 221 were suspected of people smuggling, 16 of human trafficking, and 25 of other offences, including producing and using forged documents. Authorities identified 109 potential trafficking victims and detected 1,715 migrants living or travelling illegally. A total of 7,660 officers took part, checking more than 378,000 people and running 210,594 searches in Interpol databases. Off Morocco’s southern coast, police stopped a boat carrying 70 people, including 30 minors, after it had been at sea for six days. Senegalese authorities reported a departure from Senegal, and a wooden boat carrying 80 passengers, including two children, was later intercepted off Mauritania, where three suspected organisers were arrested. In Libya, 34 potential trafficking victims were rescued. Three people were detained there on suspicion of organised-group involvement in human trafficking, people smuggling and extortion. The operation also targeted land routes. In Cyprus and Greece, arrests were made after people were caught trying to use forged identity documents. In Morocco, a suspect was detained for supplying forged passports and recruiting people for illegal migration. In France, six people were arrested on suspicion of money laundering, facilitating illegal migration, and housing a vulnerable person in conditions incompatible with human dignity. Interpol said the operation was coordinated with Europol, Frontex, Afripol, the International Organization for Migration and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, and that the gathered data could lead to more arrests in the coming weeks and months.