Liberia charges former vice president with drug trafficking and other offenses

MONROVIA, Liberia (AP) — Liberia has charged former Vice President Jewel Howard-Taylor with drug trafficking, money laundering and other offenses as part of an investigation into an alleged transnational narcotics network, the Justice Ministry said Wednesday.

Howard-Taylor, who was vice president from 2018 to 2024, was stopped while attempting to leave Liberia at Roberts International Airport and taken to Liberia National Police headquarters, the ministry said in a statement.

She faces charges including unlicensed importation, sale, distribution and transportation of controlled substances, drug trafficking, criminal solicitation, criminal facilitation, criminal conspiracy and money laundering.

Howard-Taylor was married to former Liberian President Charles Taylor , who was convicted by an international war crimes court for sponsoring atrocities in Sierra Leone.

The government also charged three foreigners in absentia for their alleged roles in the network: Croatians Nikolai Ivancic and Mihovil Vrovac and Ukrainian Tara Zaderieko.

Authorities said they would pursue measures to locate and apprehend them.

The charges follow last month’s announcement of Liberia’s largest-ever drug seizure — tons of cocaine worth about $336 million, which authorities said implicated senior police officials. Both cases were not connected.

In recent years, West Africa has emerged as a key transit route for cocaine trafficked from South America to Europe, with smugglers taking advantage of porous borders and weak enforcement in parts of the region.

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AP’s Africa coverage at: https://apnews.com/hub/africa