Liberia seizes $19 million drug shipment as president vows crackdown on narcotics

Liberia's President Joseph Boakai vowed on Tuesday to "expose and destroy" the networks behind drug trafficking after one of the largest narcotics busts in the country's history.

"Liberia will not be used as a safe haven, transit point, warehouse, financial centre, or operational base by criminal networks engaged in narcotics trafficking," the president said.

Liberian officials seized around 240 kilograms of cocaine this month at the Roberts International Airport in the capital Monrovia, worth more than $19 million in street value, Boakai said in a national address.

"We are determined to expose and destroy the networks that finance, coordinate, facilitate, and profit from this criminal activity," Boakai adds.

Seeking accountability

Liberia's national anti-drug agency and national police will coordinate the investigation, which will ensure that "every individual found responsible is fully accountable under the law", Boakai added.

In Senegal, customs authorities announced on Tuesday that they had seized around 970 kilograms of cocaine in the centre of the country.

Abdulai Kargbo, the opposition leader in Sierra Leone's parliament, expressed his "deep concern" in May over several cases linking the country to "international drug trafficking and organised criminal networks", in an open letter to the president.

His letter came after the Spanish police seized 30 tonnes of cocaine -- worth 812 million euros ($943 million) -- as well as firearms on board a ship that departed Sierra Leone's capital Freetown.