FILE - Police stand guard at the entrance of Ghana electoral commission office in Accra Ghana, Dec. 9, 2016. (AP Photo/Sunday Alamba, File)
SAACCRA, Ghana (AP) — Police in Ghana rescued 57 Nigerians trafficked to the West African country and arrested five people suspected of operating a cybercrime and human trafficking ring, authorities said Thursday.
Police raided a building in the suburb of the capital Accra on Wednesday, where the victims, between the ages of 18 and 26, were housed and forced to engage in online romance scams, the Criminal Investigations Department said Thursday in a statement.
The police retrieved 77 laptops, 38 mobile phones, two vehicles, three television sets, and other internet-enabled devices from the building.
The suspects allegedly lured their victims by promising them lucrative jobs and other opportunities in Ghana.
“Upon arrival, the victims, aged between 18 and 26 years, were coerced into engaging in online romance scams and other heinous activities,†the police said.
The police said all the rescued victims were receiving the necessary care and support, but did not indicate when they would be sent back to their home countries.
The trafficking of West African nationals to engage in online scams and prostitution is a common practice in Ghana in spite of multiple police operations to crackdown on perpetrators. Ghana’s Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection, the government agency responsible for enforcing the law on human trafficking, said in a report this year that it made 79 prosecutions and 54 convictions between 2023 and 2024.
Last month, Interpol said that led to the arrests across 14 African countries of 260 people suspected in online romance and extortion scams.
Altogether the scams targeted more than 1,400 victims who lost nearly $2.8 million, the international police organization said.
Interpol said Ghanaian authorities arrested 68 suspects in romance and sextortion scams. They are accused of using fake identities to trick victims into paying fake shipment fees and secretly recorded explicit videos for blackmail.
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