The Ghana Police Service has reaffirmed its commitment to strengthening international police cooperation to combat transnational organised crime, protect vulnerable victims and prevent criminals from exploiting national borders.
Director-General of the Criminal Investigations Department (CID), Commissioner of Police Lydia Yaako Donkor, said effective cooperation among law-enforcement agencies was increasingly critical as criminal networks became more sophisticated and international.
In a statement shared on her Facebook Timeline on Monday, September 7, 2026, to mark the United Nations International Day of Police Cooperation, COP Donkor said Ghana’s experience in recent international operations had demonstrated the tangible benefits of sharing information and intelligence across borders.
Ghana, which has been a member of INTERPOL since 1958, operates an INTERPOL National Central Bureau in Accra that facilitates cooperation between the Ghana Police Service and law-enforcement agencies around the world.
According to COP Donkor, Ghana’s participation in INTERPOL’s Operation Contender 3.0, a coordinated crackdown on romance scams and sextortion conducted simultaneously across 14 African countries in August 2025, resulted in 68 arrests, the seizure of 835 electronic devices and the identification of 108 victims.
Investigations into the operation also uncovered financial losses of about US$450,000, with approximately US$70,000 recovered.
She cited another INTERPOL operation, Operation Sentinel, conducted across 19 African countries between October and November 2025, which helped investigators identify the ransomware used to attack a Ghanaian financial institution, resulting in the theft of more than US$120,000.
The operation also led to the recovery of nearly 30 terabytes of data and the arrest of the suspected perpetrators.
COP Donkor said the figures represented more than successful investigations, stressing that behind each case were individuals, businesses and families whose lives had been affected by crime.
“These are not abstract statistics,” she said, noting that the operations had helped protect businesses, recover stolen funds, secure digital infrastructure and disrupt criminal networks.
She said victims of romance scams and sextortion often suffered after criminals manipulated their trust through fake identities, stolen photographs, fraudulent relationships and threats of exposure.
According to her, international police cooperation was valuable because information shared between agencies could be transformed into intelligence, intelligence into action, and action into protection for victims and recovery of stolen assets.
She also highlighted the importance of international cooperation in protecting children and other vulnerable people.
In January 2026, collaboration between Ghanaian and Australian authorities resulted in the arrest of three suspects and the rescue of four Ghanaian children aged between six and 13 in the Ashanti and Bono regions.
COP Donkor described the rescue as a powerful example of why cross-border cooperation must remain at the centre of modern policing.
She said the value of restoring a child’s safety, dignity and future could not be measured in financial terms, adding that the same principle applied to the fight against other forms of transnational organised crime, including vehicle-related crimes and firearms smuggling.
The 2026 International Day of Police Cooperation is being observed under the theme, “Protecting Against Vulnerability; Building Trust and Legitimacy in Policing.”
COP Donkor said the theme should encourage law-enforcement agencies to look beyond the financial cost of crime and focus equally on protecting people who were most vulnerable to exploitation.
“As criminal networks become more international, police cooperation must become more global; and as criminals attempt to exploit borders, law enforcement must continue to build bridges across them,” she said.
She stressed that Ghana’s approach was clear: international police cooperation must not be constrained by national borders.
The Ghana Police Service, through the CID and INTERPOL National Central Bureau in Accra, she said, would continue to work with INTERPOL, African partners and law-enforcement agencies worldwide to protect victims, disrupt criminal networks, recover criminal assets and pursue fugitives.
“When police services cooperate, criminals lose the advantage of borders. When information is shared, victims have a greater chance of being found. When investigators work together, criminals have fewer places to hide,” she said.
COP Donkor further stressed that effective policing depended not only on enforcement but also on professionalism, accountability and public trust.
“And when policing is professional, accountable and trusted, our communities become stronger,” she said.
