A 21-year-old man has been arrested in Canada after police traced the car he fraudulently purchased with a fake identity card to Ghana amid a growing trend of transnational car theft syndicates between the North American country and West Africa. 

Reports stated that probes into the case started in January 2025 after the Saskatoon Police Service (SPS) received a complaint from a firm, alleging that a man from Alberta used a fake identification card to purchase a Land Rover.

An inter-agency team consisting of investigators from Saskatoon Police, Edmonton Police Service and the Canada Border Services Agency was subsequently assembled which eventually found that the SUV had already been shipped to Ghana from British Columbia. 

“Members of the Economic Crime Section began investigating and learned the vehicle was in British Columbia. Then days later, with assistance from the Edmonton Police Service and Canada Border Services Agency, officers learned the vehicle was on its way to Ghana, West Africa,” the SPS said in a statement. 

The agency added, “Officers were later able to confirm that the vehicle was in Ghana.”

The SPS further alleged that the following month, they received a similar report from another business about someone who appeared to be the same individual fraudulently purchasing a BMW X5 vehicle from their store. 

It was gathered that the suspect was also from Alberta but used a Quebec driving licence to carry out the purchase in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, before the business was later informed that the person who bought the vehicle had been flagged for fraudulent activity. 

“Then on February 3, 2025, Saskatoon Police received a report of a fraudulently purchased BMW X5 from a business in the 3100 block of Faithfull Avenue. The suspect was reportedly coming from Alberta but had a Quebec driver’s license and attended Saskatoon to buy the vehicle. 

“The business was later informed that the individual who purchased the vehicle had been flagged for fraudulent activity,” the police added. 

Investigation eventually concluded that the suspect had been using a driving licence that had been altered after it was lost in Quebec to make illegal car purchases, leading to the arrest of the suspect who was not officially named by authorities but only identified as a 21-year-old man.

He has since been charged with over $5000 fraud, theft of a motor vehicle, possession of an identity document belonging to another person, fraudulently impersonating another person, using a forged document, and breaching court-imposed conditions. 

Global News reported that more than $5 million worth of stolen vehicles were recently recovered by Niagara Regional Police as part of an elaborate operation targeting organised auto theft networks operating across southern Ontario. 

Police said numerous stolen vehicles connected to the investigation were recovered at the Port of Montreal and were being prepared for shipment to West Africa.