Ghana Police Recover 43 Stolen Luxury Vehicles Shipped from Europe and North America

The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of the Ghana Police Service has recovered 43 high-end luxury vehicles stolen from abroad and illegally shipped into Ghana between January and July 2025.

The vehicles—comprising Rolls-Royce, Porsche, Audi, BMW, and Mercedes-Benz models—were reported stolen in multiple countries across Europe and North America, including Germany, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Spain, Italy, Canada, and the United States.

The announcement was made by COP Lydia Yaako Donkor, Director General of the CID, at a press conference in Accra on Monday, August 4.

“The administration has stepped up efforts to fight vehicle crime by working closely with national and international partners, including the Customs Division of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA), INTERPOL, and the FBI,” COP Donkor stated.

She credited enhanced inter-agency cooperation and intelligence sharing with the successful recovery of the stolen vehicles. This collaboration has enabled the tracking of illicitly imported vehicles and the criminal networks behind them.

According to CID investigations, the stolen car trade is often linked to organized transnational criminal networks involved in a range of serious offenses such as money laundering, insurance fraud, identity theft, and Visa card fraud.

The operation also revealed that Ghana is increasingly being used as either a destination or a transit point in the global black market for luxury vehicles.

This comes on the heels of INTERPOL’s Operation Safe Wheels, conducted across 12 West African countries in late 2024 and early 2025, which exposed Ghana’s growing role in the illicit vehicle trade. That operation alone uncovered over 150 stolen vehicles from Europe and Canada.

Of the 43 luxury vehicles seized in the latest CID operation, 18 cases have been fully investigated, resulting in court orders for repatriation.

So far, eight vehicles have been returned to their countries of origin, with 10 others awaiting final clearance. The remaining 25 vehicles are still under judicial review.

COP Donkor emphasized the due process involved in every impoundment, including giving importers the opportunity to produce documents proving legal ownership or purchase.

“Unfortunately, in nearly all cases, the individuals who cleared these vehicles in Ghana have failed to provide valid documentation showing they legally acquired the cars from the original countries,” she noted.

This raises strong suspicions of either complicity or negligence on the part of local importers.

A critical message from the CID is that payment of customs duties alone does not validate ownership of a vehicle that was stolen abroad.

“Let me state clearly: paying customs duties in Ghana does not mean the vehicle was legally obtained from its country of origin,” COP Donkor cautioned.

The CID has urged car buyers and importers to conduct thorough due diligence before purchasing high-value vehicles, warning that stolen vehicles—even if cleared through customs—could be subject to seizure and repatriation.

The Ghana Police Service continues to work closely with GRA Customs, INTERPOL, and the FBI to dismantle the international syndicates behind vehicle theft and trafficking.

Criminals often use sophisticated methods—such as tampering with Vehicle Identification Numbers (VINs) and forging ownership documents—to smuggle stolen cars across borders.

This ongoing multi-agency operation underscores the global scale of vehicle crime and the critical need for cross-border cooperation to confront it.

The Ghana Police Service reiterated its commitment to ensuring that the country does not become a safe haven for stolen goods or a link in transnational criminal supply chains.