Ghana’s participation in international police operations has helped arrest dozens of cybercrime suspects, recover stolen data and funds, and rescue children from exploitation, the Director-General of the Criminal Investigations Department (CID), Commissioner of Police Lydia Yaako Donkor, has said.
Speaking on Monday, September 7, 2026, to mark the United Nations International Day of Police Cooperation, COP Donkor said the changing nature of crime made cross-border collaboration increasingly critical to protecting vulnerable people and disrupting criminal networks.
She said Ghana, which has been a member of INTERPOL since 1958, had leveraged its INTERPOL National Central Bureau in Accra to strengthen international law-enforcement cooperation.
According to her, Ghana’s participation in Operation Contender 3.0, an INTERPOL-coordinated operation targeting romance scams and sextortion across 14 African countries in August 2025, resulted in 68 arrests, the seizure of 835 electronic devices and the identification of 108 victims.
She added that investigations established financial losses of about US$450,000, with approximately US$70,000 recovered.
COP Donkor also cited Operation Sentinel, a cybercrime operation conducted simultaneously across 19 African countries between October and November 2025. She said the operation helped identify the ransomware strain used to attack a Ghanaian financial institution, resulting in the theft of more than US$120,000.
“Nearly 30 terabytes of data were recovered and the perpetrators were arrested,” she said.
The CID Director-General stressed that the figures represented more than statistics, noting that they reflected tangible interventions to protect businesses, recover savings, secure digital infrastructure and dismantle criminal networks.
“The outcome of these operations testify that international cooperation does not simply exchange information; but when properly used, information becomes intelligence; intelligence becomes action; and action can protect victims and recover their money,” she said.
She said the 2026 theme, “Protecting Against Vulnerability; Building Trust and Legitimacy in Policing,” should encourage law-enforcement agencies to focus not only on financial losses but also on protecting vulnerable individuals.
She disclosed that in January 2026, collaboration between Ghanaian and Australian authorities led to the arrest of three suspects and the rescue of four Ghanaian children aged between six and 13 in the Ashanti and Bono Regions.
“What price do we place on restoring a child’s safety, dignity and future? The value of rescuing a six-year-old child from exploitation is priceless. That is precisely why international police cooperation matters,” COP Donkor said.
