Liberia charges former vice president over alleged $317m cocaine trafficking network
Liberian prosecutors have charged former Vice President Jewel Howard-Taylor with drug trafficking, money laundering, and other offenses in connection with an investigation into an alleged transnational narcotics network, the country’s authorities announced late Wednesday.
Howard-Taylor, who served as vice president from 2018 to 2024, was arrested on August 19, 2026, at Roberts International Airport and taken to the headquarters of the Liberia National Police, according to a statement from the Ministry of Information.
In a separate Facebook statement, the Information Ministry confirmed that the charges stem from a record $317 million drug bust on July 21, 2026, when officers seized nearly four metric tons of cocaine in Duazon, east of the capital Monrovia. Two foreign nationals were arrested during the operation, which authorities described as the one of the largest narcotics bust in the country’s history: one holding dual Spanish and Colombian passports and the other a Serbian passport.
Howard-Taylor faces charges of unlicensed importation, sale, distribution, and transportation of controlled substances, alongside drug trafficking, criminal solicitation, criminal facilitation, criminal conspiracy, and money laundering.
Liberia’s Justice Minister and Attorney General, Counsellor N. Oswald Tweh, said the arrest was based on “credible available evidence” and that Howard-Taylor will be indicted by a grand jury before being forwarded to court for prosecution.
The government has also charged three foreign nationals in absentia, two Croatians and a Ukrainian, in connection with the network. Tweh stated that authorities will pursue “all domestic and international measures necessary” to extradite the suspects to Liberia.
The July seizure followed an earlier bust in June 2026, when authorities intercepted 237.6 kilograms of cocaine valued at over $19 million at Roberts International Airport.
According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, the West African coast remains a primary transit corridor for South American cocaine destined for European markets.
Technology & Business Editor
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