The International Police (Interpol) have arrested a man believed to be the kingpin of a human trafficking ring operating from Ghana, Togo, Benin, Nigeria to Spain.
Reports say the man – a yet unidentified Nigerian – was intercepted in Ghana by officers who had been placed under a Red Notice by Spain.
The suspect was arrested when agents conducted a check on a passenger manifest during an operation against cross-border crimes tagged: ‘Smuggling Training and Operations Programme (STOP).’
Interpol said that Operation STOP included training to 20 frontline officers to optimize the use of Interpol’s policing capabilities, including its criminal and stolen and lost travel document databases, to better track the movement of criminals and identify potential victims.
“The hit on the Spanish Red Notice was generated by checking names and passports against Interpol’s databases using I-Batch, an application that processes bulk data from passenger manifests in a very short time,” a statement on Interpol’s website said.
According to Isaac Yeboah, Ghana’s Police Commissioner, Interpol’s databases were essential for training officers, building networks, and sharing information swiftly and effectively.
The global agency also arrested 286 human trafficking suspects in July.