Every year, Interpol publishes a retrospective annual report on the notable events, successes, and outcomes from the previous year. The most recent report, published in December 2025, reflected upon its accomplishments in 2024.
In the report’s foreword, Secretary General Valdecy Urquiza discussed the numerous successes the organisation has experienced over the course of the year, the sense of shared responsibility that Interpol helps facilitate, his commitment to modernising the organisation, and the importance of acting in unity to combat crime.
Notable successes
Some of the successes that Interpol had over the course of 2024 include:
- Improving policing and intelligence sharing
- Improved partnerships with both the private sector and regional police organisations
- A record number of arrests and seizures
- Increased information sharing between countries
Law enforcement operations and data
Over the course of 2024 Interpol helped facilitate, assist in, or coordinate 26 major operations, of which four involved red notices:
- Operation Orion International: a 12 country operation targeting online child abuse materials and child sex offenders that resulted in, among others, the arrest of seven wanted individual who were subject to red notices
- The arrest of Sean McGoven, Ireland’s most wanted criminal, who was captured following the publication of a red notice
- Operation Screen: law enforcement agencies from over 12 countries worked together to disrupt terrorist groups and organised crime networks, including eleven wanted fugitives with red notices published seeking their arrests
- A fugitive round-up operation targeted150 high risk criminals who were subject to Interpol red notices and made 58 arrests and identified the location of 28 wanted individuals
Community engagements
As mentioned by Secretary General Urquiza in his foreword, Interpol engaged with the public and private sectors in a number of different ways, including:
- An Identify Me public appeal campaign aimed at seeking assistance in identifying 46 deceased women – including murder victims – connected to unsolved crimes.
- Following legislative changes in Belgium that allowed for DNA profiles to be searched and shared on Interpol’s I-Familia family DNA matching system, a Dutch woman whose body was found in Belgum in 1991 was finally identified.
- Roraima Andriani, Interpol’s Special Representative to the European Union, addressed the UN General Assembly in November 2024 to discuss Interpol’s work in stopping criminal networks from engaging in human trafficking and exploitation related to women and girls.
- In December 2024, Interpol launched a Think Twice campaign to educate the public about cyber threats and financial crimes, with a particular focus on five threats:
- Generative AI scams;
- Ransomware attacks;
- Romance baiting;
- Phishing; and
- Malware attacks
- Interpol provided QR codes to five reports and guidelines discussing global fraud, AI and policing, metacrime, and several cyberthreat assessment reports.
Capacity building and training
The annual report also delved into capacity building and training related developments and noted the following outcomes:
- The Interpol Global Academy Network increased its membership numbers from 6 to 17.
- The Interpol Law Enforcement Academy at the Interpol Global Complex for Innovation was officially launched in Singapore.
- Interpol’s digital training system, the Virtual Academy, saw several notable developments over the course of 2024:
- The Virtual Academy comprised half of all Interpol training participants
- The International IP Crime Investigators College (IIPCIC) – a platform within the Virtual College – saw an increase in its digital training programs, updating the number of available training modules to 187.
- The IIPCIC hosted the 17th International Law Enforcement IP Crime Conference in Willemstad, Curacao from 23-25 September 2024.
- The integration of a gender perspective in law enforcement continued via the Interpol Senior Leadership Programme, which included dedicated training in Qatar.
- Interpol’s Project Momentum: Middle East and North Africa (MENA), which is a three-year capacity building program designed to “develop and reinforce national and regional law enforcement capabilities against organized crime while strengthening gender mainstreaming policies in law enforcement agencies” saw its first female fellowship trainee – a police officer from Tunisia.
- Project Blue Pacific, a three-year program aimed at improving information sharing across the Pacific to better combat transnational and organised crime, was shown to have effectively benefited 11 countries.
- Nine mentoring programs aimed at building capacity and enhancing policing capabilities were implemented in the Pacific region.
- Interpol held its first-ever partner conference, Investing in a Safer World, in September 2024, which was aimed at addressing emergent and increasing security challenges. One of the outcomes of the conference was the welcoming of the UN General Assembly’s adoption of the UN Convention Against Cybercrime.
- Interpol held its 92nd General Assembly in Glasgow in November 2024. Over the course of the event, Valdecy Urquiza was elected as the new Secretary General of Interpol, member countries agreed to an update of the Repository of Practice on the application of Articles 2 and 3 of the constitution, and several approvals and endorsements were successfully agreed upon.
Key takeaways
The 2024 annual report identified the numerous headwinds Interpol and its member states face, from the use of sophisticated technologies by organised crime to the continued changes in cybercrime. By working in unity with its partners and continually innovating its systems, technologies, and strategies, Secretary General Valdecy Urquiza believes Interpol will be able to successfully continue in its mission of combatting crime.
