Five charged in Liberia after more than 200kg of cocaine seized in drug bust

Authorities in Liberia have charged five suspects over one of the largest drug seizures in the country’s history, after police found more than 200kg of cocaine falsely declared as Maggi seasoning cubes.The shipment, with an estimated value of $19m (£14.2m), was discovered at the international airport in Monrovia on 8 June, but the suspects were not named until a press briefing at the weekend.“This was a serious transnational cocaine trafficking operation using Liberia’s aviation and logistics system as a channel for organised crime,” said Insp Gen Gregory Coleman late on Saturday. He added that his team had found evidence linking the shipment to a similar one processed in May.News of the drug bust caused uproar in Liberia, and prompted President Joseph Boakai to order a combined investigation by the police and national anti-drug agency. “Liberia will not be used as a safe haven, transit point, warehouse, financial centre or operational base by criminal networks engaged in narcotics trafficking,” he said at the time.But the delay in naming the suspects caused a row in parliament, where Coleman was summoned to a special senate hearing, and fed public speculation that the investigation was being tampered with to protect powerful Liberian citizens.On Saturday, Coleman announced that his team had found evidence suggesting the complicity of the logistics company that handled the shipment. He then named the suspects who are being charged for the transportation, possession and illicit trafficking of controlled substances and criminal conspiracy.The key suspect, the operations manager of the firm, is now in custody in Monrovia. Coleman said arrest warrants would be issued in collaboration with Interpol for the others who remain at large. Another suspect, believed to be attending an event in China at the time of the bust, has not been back to the country. Prosecutors also released the Dutch phone number of one UK-based suspect and his house address with a Birmingham postcode.The bust has reinforced reports that west Africa, a region with porous land and sea borders, has become a major staging post for the movement of narcotics between South America and Europe.In October 2022, authorities intercepted a shipping container at Monrovia seaport with 520kg of cocaine valued at $100m (£74.86m). One of the suspects named on Saturday was reportedly released from prison after being arrested in connection with another drug-related case in 2024.In neighbouring Sierra Leone, one of Europe’s most wanted drug dealers has taken refuge since at least 2022 in the country’s capital, Freetown, and is in a serious relationship with the president’s daughter, a Guardian investigation showed in February 2025.In May, Spanish police working with US and Dutch officials confiscated 45 tonnes of cocaine worth €812m (£694m) in what a Madrid court said was Europe’s ‌largest-ever cocaine bust. Authorities said the Comoros-flagged cargo vessel, which was raided near the Canary Islands, had left Freetown with Libya as its official destination. Another drug shipment out of Freetown was also seized en route to Spain in February.