The United States Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, INL, Michael Gonzales, has detailed the most important highlights of his journey to Abuja, Nigeria.
In a press release on Monday, the US Mission introduced that the United States and Nigeria had deepened their collaboration towards financially motivated sextortion, romance scams and transnational cybercrime.
According to the US Embassy, Gonzales’ journey to Abuja was aimed toward advancing shared US-Nigeria safety priorities in areas affecting each international locations.
His go to coincided with Nigeria’s Cybercrime Awareness Week, throughout which he emphasised the necessity to strengthen cooperation towards cyber-enabled crime in meetings with senior Nigerian authorities officers from the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, the Office of the National Security Adviser, ONSA, the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA, and the Nigeria Police Force, NPF.
According to the US Mission, Gonzales and Nigerian safety officers mentioned methods to increase joint efforts towards financially motivated sextortion, romance scams and different types of transnational cybercrime.
Highlighting how cybercrime can cross borders in seconds, DAS Gonzales challenged US and Nigerian counterparts to make sure that cooperation in tackling such prison actions strikes simply as swiftly.
“Recent extraditions demonstrate that when the United States and Nigeria combine investigative, diplomatic and law enforcement capabilities, international borders do not provide sanctuary for those who prey on their citizens, the statement read.
“In August, Nigeria extradited two alleged cybercriminals to the United States. They face costs in separate financially motivated sextortion circumstances involving American minors who died by suicide. Since 2022, the FBI Legal Attaché Office on the US Embassy in Abuja has labored with the EFCC on 41 extraditions, together with 5 accomplished in 2026. That marks a pointy enhance from 2012 to 2021, when our two international locations recorded solely 4 arrests and 5 extraditions.”
Gonzales acknowledged the critical support provided by the EFCC, the Federal Ministry of Justice and the Office of the Attorney-General of the Federation in facilitating the US investigations and extraditions.
He emphasised that swift and public action to hold criminals meaningfully accountable could also play a significant role in deterring others from preying on victims.
DAS Gonzales reiterated that the United States does not measure the strength of its collaboration with Nigeria simply by the number of programmes it funds.
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