Liberia's ex-vice president will await trial on drug trafficking and other charges in prison

MONROVIA, Liberia (AP) — Liberia's former vice president was sent to prison on Tuesday to await trial on drug trafficking and other charges, after a court in the West African country denied her request to be released on humanitarian grounds for medical treatment.

Jewel Howard-Taylor's lawyers asked the court for her to remain at a local hospital in Monrovia to receive treatment for a health emergency. She suffered an asthma attack and her blood pressure was high while in police custody after her arrest, according to local media reports.

Alongside three other foreign nationals charged in absentia, the former vice president and wife of former president, Charles Taylor, is facing multiple charges for drug trafficking, money laundering and other offenses as part of an investigation into an alleged transnational narcotics network. Howard-Taylor was vice president from 2018 to 2024.

She was arrested on Aug. 19 at Roberts International Airport while she was attempting to leave Liberia.

Her lawyers have rejected the allegations, saying they are politically motivated, but investigators say the case is supported by travel records, audio recordings, witness testimonies and evidence of her alleged association with members of the transnational cocaine trafficking network.

Last month, Liberian authorities seized and burned around 4.2 metric tons of cocaine with a street value estimated to be about $317 million, also implicating some senior police officials in the trafficking operation, which has been linked to her.

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.