Interpol builds huge database and IDs 126 terrorist suspects from face biometrics

Specialized law enforcement officers from 11 countries gathered in Tunis, Tunisia in June to capture and analyze face biometrics from suspected terrorists, according to an announcement from Interpol.

The operation was coordinated by Interpol and the first of its kind. Dubbed “Operation Shams II,” it involved 28 officers, who met over 5 days and extracted 108,076 facial images from online visual content created by jihadist groups.

The officers programmed AI agents and deployed advanced AI scripts to automate data collection, perform biometric deduplication and image quality checks. The result is a new dataset of 6,362 unique and high-quality facial images of terrorism suspects that is ready to be used in comparisons with the Interpol Facial Recognition System (IFRS).

The IFRS was created in 2016 in partnership with Idemia, which began supplying an upgraded version of its Multibiometric Identification System (MBIS) to Interpol in 2024. It is accessed through Interpol’s BioHub, which allows member countries to search multiple databases for fingerprint or face biometrics matches at once.

Operation Shams II has already identified 126 terrorists this way.

Interpol’s National Central Bureau in Baghdad also provided a large intelligence dataset including terrorism suspects, which added hundreds more images.

In addition to the face biometrics component, Shams II traced illicit funding with cutting-edge cryptocurrency tools.

Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana, Iraq, Kenya, Malaysia, Nigeria, Philippines, Qatar, Tajikistan, Tunisia and Uzbekistan participated in the operation, which was funded by the European Union’s Foreign Policy Instruments with support from the United Nations Office of Counter-Terrorism (UNOCT).

Article Topics

biometric identification  |  biometric matching  |  biometrics  |  counter-terrorism  |  facial recognition  |  Interpol  |  law enforcement