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The United States and Nigeria are stepping up cooperation to tackle sextortion, romance scams and other cyber-enabled crimes, with plans to strengthen intelligence sharing, joint investigations and prosecution of offenders.
The renewed push followed a visit to Abuja by Michael Gonzales, the US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, who met with senior officials of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), the Office of the National Security Adviser, the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) and the Nigeria Police Force.
In a statement on Monday, the US Embassy in Abuja said the discussions, held during Nigeria’s Cybercrime Awareness Week, focused on expanding joint operations against financially motivated sextortion, romance scams and other transnational cybercrimes.
Gonzales said cooperation between countries was essential to keep pace with cybercriminals who exploit international borders to evade arrest and prosecution.
He pointed to recent extraditions as evidence that joint investigative, diplomatic and law enforcement efforts could prevent suspects from escaping justice by moving across jurisdictions.
“Recent extraditions demonstrates that criminals could not rely on international boundaries to evade justice when both countries combine their investigative, diplomatic and law enforcement capabilities,” he said.
Nigeria extradited two alleged cybercriminals to the United States in August. They face separate charges linked to financially motivated sextortion schemes involving American minors who later died by suicide.
The embassy disclosed that the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Legal Attaché Office in Abuja had worked with the EFCC on 41 extraditions since 2022, including five completed in 2026.
This marks an increase from the period between 2012 and 2021, when the two countries recorded four arrests and five extraditions, according to the statement.
Gonzales commended the EFCC, the Federal Ministry of Justice and the Office of the Attorney General of the Federation for their roles in investigations and extradition proceedings involving suspects wanted in the US.
He also stressed that visible and timely law enforcement action was necessary to hold offenders accountable and discourage others from targeting victims.
The embassy highlighted the toll of financially motivated sextortion on young people and their families, citing figures from the US National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, which received more than 50,000 reports of the crime in 2025.
That amounts to approximately 137 reports every day, the statement noted.
It added that the FBI had identified Nigeria and other parts of West Africa, alongside Southeast Asia, as locations where some of the most active sextortion networks operate.
Through Operation Artemis and related initiatives, the FBI works with Nigerian authorities to identify and disrupt criminal groups targeting Americans.
The cooperation also covers romance scams, in which fraudsters exploit victims’ emotional relationships and trust to steal savings and retirement funds.
In Nigeria, the Police Force’s National Cybercrime Centre launched a nationwide online safety and cyber-hygiene campaign in March. The initiative seeks to educate the public about romance scams, sextortion, phishing, identity theft and business email compromise, while encouraging people to recognise and report online threats.
During his meeting with the EFCC, Gonzales praised the commission’s record in high-profile prosecutions, asset recovery and public engagement, describing it as one of Africa’s most recognised economic crime enforcement agencies.
He also cited its partnership with the FBI as an example of international law enforcement cooperation, which has involved intelligence sharing, suspect identification, arrests and complex extradition proceedings. Some of the cases, the embassy noted, have required years of joint investigations.
However, Gonzales called for the process to become faster and more routine, with greater emphasis on dismantling entire criminal networks rather than focusing only on individual suspects.
The embassy said both countries planned to increase efforts against the financial systems and individuals supporting cybercrime networks, with the aim of disrupting their operations before more people become victims.
The next phase of cooperation is expected to focus on improving information sharing between US and Nigerian agencies, translating cyber and financial intelligence into investigations more quickly, and expanding public education on sextortion and romance scams.
The countries also plan to strengthen Nigeria’s investigative, prosecutorial and cybercrime-reporting capabilities.
US authorities said the success of the partnership would be assessed through measurable results rather than the number of programmes funded.
These include protecting victims, dismantling criminal networks, advancing investigations, securing convictions and strengthening Nigerian institutions.
The embassy said the broader objective was to develop lasting law enforcement capacity that benefits both Nigerians and Americans.
