Gambia Operation Identifies 74 Suspected Stolen Vehicles
INTERPOL’s Operation Safe Wheels across 12 West African countries last year detected about 150 stolen vehicles. They seized more than 75 stolen vehicles, demonstrating that stolen-vehicle trafficking is an active regional enforcement issue.
AUGUST 2026: A two-week border-security operation near Banjul, The Gambia, identified 74 stolen motor vehicles after authorities carried out more than 13,000 checks using INTERPOL databases.
The operation brought together officers from immigration, police, customs, prison services and The Gambia’s INTERPOL National Central Bureau. Teams used mobile devices to screen identity documents, fingerprints and vehicles for potential links to crime, including vehicle theft, drug trafficking, human trafficking and terrorism.
INTERPOL said 748 of the searches were conducted through its Biometric Hub, a platform used by law-enforcement agencies to compare biometric data such as fingerprints with international records.
The deployment was conducted under Project Identity, an INTERPOL initiative that provides training, technical support and operational capacity to help Gambian authorities make broader use of international policing tools.
While the operation identified 74 vehicles recorded as stolen, INTERPOL did not release details on arrests, seizures, the vehicles’ countries of origin, or any follow-up investigations.
The operation highlights the growing use of real-time international databases by border authorities in West Africa to detect wanted persons, illicit goods and stolen vehicles.
Source: INTERPOL
