Cocaine worth over $370m seized in Liberia's largest ever drug bust

A huge quantity of cocaine has been seized during a raid on a suspected illegal storage facility near Liberia's capital, Monrovia, in what authorities say is the biggest drugs bust in the country's history.

Videos and photos released by police showed dozens of sealed suitcases and boxes inside a lorry that investigators believed contained high-grade cocaine.

Police chief Gregory Coleman told the BBC that forensic tests had confirmed the substance was cocaine, with an estimated street value of more than $370m (£220m).

Several people were arrested during the raid in Duazon, a town about 20km (12 miles) east of Monrovia, including two foreigners and several Liberians.

No formal charges have yet been announced for those arrested.

The police chief said the seizure on Tuesday was the result of a long-running investigation into suspected drug-trafficking networks operating in Liberia.

"Between 2018 and 2023, apparently there was a resurface of major trafficking and transiting in Liberia. Over the last one-and-a-half years, we've been surveilling them and this is the result of that operation," said Coleman.

He said the drugs were "tested and confirmed" to be cocaine.

It was "largest drugs bust" in Liberia in recent years, he added.

It is still unclear from where the drugs originated or their intended destination.

Coleman told the BBC that the police had been investigating that when the two foreigners subsequently arrived in Liberia and were arrested.

He confirmed that one of them was carrying two passports - a Spanish one and a Colombian one - while the other held a Serbian passport.