Liberia: Another Massive Suspected Cocaine Cache As U.S.$19.2m Airport Probe Deepens

What the report says

AllAfrica, republishing reporting from The Liberian Investigator, reported that Liberian security forces raided a warehouse in Duazon, Margibi County, on Tuesday and recovered a large suspected cocaine consignment. The operation involved the Liberia Drug Enforcement Agency, Liberia National Police, Executive Protection Service and other Joint Security personnel, with court officials present under a search-and-seizure warrant.

According to the report, officers removed dozens of suitcases and boxes believed to contain narcotics and took them for inventory and forensic testing. Authorities had not confirmed the final weight, composition or value by late Tuesday. Officials at the scene suggested the shipment could exceed US$200 million in value, but the government said that figure was not verified. Two foreign nationals, believed by sources at the scene to be Colombian and Spanish, were detained, though officials had not formally named them or announced charges.

Information Minister Jerolinmek M. Piah confirmed the operation at a regular Ministry of Information briefing, saying preliminary indications pointed to cocaine while stressing that laboratory and counting processes were still under way. He said the raid reflected the government’s efforts to disrupt drug-trafficking networks and that the Joint Security would provide a fuller update.

The Duazon seizure comes about six weeks after a June 8 cocaine bust at Roberts International Airport involving 237.6 kilograms valued at about US$19.2 million. President Joseph Nyuma Boakai set up a Joint National Security Investigative Task Force after that case. The new discovery is likely to add pressure on Liberian authorities as they investigate whether international trafficking groups are using the country as a transit corridor.