Liberia charges former VP Jewel Howard-Taylor with drug trafficking

Liberia has charged former Vice-President Jewel Howard-Taylor with drug trafficking, money laundering and a range of other offences as part of an investigation into an alleged transnational narcotics network.

She was detained on Wednesday before being able to board a flight at Roberts International Airport in the capital, Monrovia, the country's justice ministry confirmed.

Police chief Gregory Coleman has linked her to the seizure last month of cocaine valued at $317m (£233m).

The 63-year-old politician has yet to make any public comment about the allegations. Her lawyer told the BBC he could not comment until Howard-Taylor was formally charged in court.

Howard-Taylor went into politics after her now ex-husband, former President Charles Taylor, left power. He was a former rebel leader who was elected Liberia's president in 1997, remaining in office until 2003.

Charles Taylor was later arrested and convicted by a UN-back court of aiding and abetting rebels in neighbouring Sierra Leone during the 1991-2002 civil war, in which some 50,000 people died.

Several years later, George Weah picked Howard-Taylor as his running mate and she served as his deputy during his presidency from 2018 until 2024.

Howard-Tayor faces charges including the unlicensed importation, sale and transportation of controlled drugs, illicit trafficking, criminal solicitation and criminal facilitation.

Police have charged three foreign nationals - two Croatians and one Ukrainian - in absentia as part of their investigation. They are accused of being part of the same network as the former politician.

Liberian Justice Minister Oswald Tweh said the authorities would use domestic and international measures to locate and arrest them.

Liberia has stepped up a crackdown on cocaine trafficking, following two major seizures in June and July.

Almost four tonnes of cocaine believed to be bound for Europe were found during the raid in July.

The authorities described it as Liberia's biggest drug bust and said it had uncovered a sophisticated transnational trafficking network.

The investigation has since extended to senior figures within Liberia's security establishment.

The government says its investigations are aimed at identifying not only those directly involved in transporting drugs, but also financiers, organisers and people accused of helping to protect the operation.

"No office is too high, no political connection is too powerful, no nationality provides immunity, and no individual is beyond the reach of the law," it said in a statement.

West Africa has increasingly been used as a major transit route for cocaine trading from South America to Europe, with traffickers exploiting porous borders and weak enforcement in parts of the region.