The United States and Nigeria are seeking to intensify efforts against sextortion, romance scams and other cybercrime networks, with Washington citing a sharp rise in extraditions as evidence of stronger law enforcement cooperation.
US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, Michael Gonzales, made this known during a visit to Abuja, where he met officials of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Office of the National Security Adviser, National Drug Law Enforcement Agency and Nigeria Police Force.
The discussions, which coincided with Nigeria’s Cybercrime Awareness Week, focused on expanding joint investigations into financially motivated sextortion and other transnational cybercrime.
Gonzales said recent extraditions showed that criminals could no longer rely on international borders to escape justice when both countries worked together.
In August, Nigeria extradited two alleged cybercriminals to the United States over separate sextortion cases involving American minors who died by suicide.
The US Mission said the FBI Legal Attaché Office in Abuja had worked with the EFCC on 41 extraditions since 2022, including five completed in 2026.
This represents a significant increase from the period between 2012 and 2021, when the two countries recorded four arrests and five extraditions.
Gonzales praised the EFCC, the Federal Ministry of Justice and the Office of the Attorney-General of the Federation for supporting investigations and extradition proceedings.
He said swift and visible accountability could help deter criminals from targeting victims.
The US official also raised concerns about the scale of financially motivated sextortion, noting that the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children received more than 50,000 reports in 2025, an average of about 137 daily.
The FBI identifies Nigeria and other parts of West Africa, alongside Southeast Asia, as locations where prominent sextortion networks have operated.
Through Operation Artemis and other initiatives, the FBI is working with Nigerian authorities to identify and disrupt networks targeting Americans.
The collaboration also covers romance scams, which the US Mission said could cost victims their life savings and retirement funds.
The Nigeria Police Force National Cybercrime Centre launched a nationwide online safety and cyber-hygiene campaign in March to tackle romance scams, sextortion, phishing, identity theft and business email compromise.
Gonzales described the EFCC as one of Africa’s leading economic crime enforcement agencies, citing its prosecutions, asset recovery and public engagement.
He called for faster and more proactive cooperation, including stronger intelligence sharing, improved cybercrime investigations, wider public awareness and enhanced Nigerian investigative and prosecutorial capacity.
He said the partnership should be measured by its outcomes, including protecting victims, disrupting criminal networks and securing convictions.
Discussion0