Press reports say that authorities in several countires made coordinated arrests of money mules this week. The FBI reported 37 arrests in the US, and UK authorities arrested 19. The US credits police in the Netherlands, the Ukraine, and other countries with assistance.

The investigation has been going on at least since June 2009, when they noticed fraudlent ACH bank money transfers. The transfers were made by trojan software installed by the Zeus worm, which propagates in a variety of ways including spam. (Any spam you've gotten with a fake warning from your bank to upgrade your security software is Zeus.) The arrests were of the "mules" who pick up the stolen money, typically by Western Union transfers, and remit it to the ringmasters.

CAUCE applauds these arrests, and particularly the extensive international cooperation that allowed them to happen.

 More details in this Wall Street Journal article