Liberia charges former vice president with drug trafficking and other offenses

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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