Liberian authorities have charged former Vice-President Jewel Howard-Taylor with drug trafficking, money laundering and among other offences.
Justice minister Oswald Tweh announced Ms Howard-Taylor’s charges in a statement Wednesday, after she was detained before boarding a flight at Roberts International Airport in the capital Monrovia.
“There will be no selective justice, political protection, sacred cows or compromise with organised criminality,” the statement said. “Every person against whom credible and admissible evidence is established will be investigated and prosecuted without fear, favour or political consideration.”
It stated that under Liberia’s Controlled Drugs and Substances Act, Ms Howard-Taylor was charged with unlicensed importation of a controlled drug or substance, unlicensed sale, trading, administration, dispensation, delivery, distribution, dispatch in transit and transportation of a controlled drug or substance and illicit trafficking of a controlled drug or substance.
Ms Howard-Taylor, ex-wife of Charles Taylor, who was George Weah’s deputy between 2018 and 2024, has not reacted to the allegations of drug trafficking against her by the Liberian government.
Her arrest and charge come barely a month after Liberian authorities announced that they had confiscated about $317 million worth of cocaine that was bound for Europe in a crackdown on illicit drug inflow through Liberia.
