Liberia has charged former Vice-President Jewel Howard-Taylor with drug trafficking, money laundering and other offences in an investigation into an alleged international narcotics network.
Howard-Taylor, 63, was detained on Wednesday at Roberts International Airport in Monrovia before she could board a flight, according to the Ministry of Justice. Police Chief Gregory Coleman linked the investigation to the seizure last month of cocaine estimated to be worth $317 million.
The former vice-president faces charges including the illegal importation, sale and transportation of controlled substances, drug trafficking, criminal solicitation and facilitation. She has not publicly commented on the allegations, while her lawyer said he could not respond until she appears formally in court.
Authorities have also charged two Croatian nationals and one Ukrainian in absentia, alleging that they were part of the same trafficking network. Justice Minister Oswald Tweh said Liberia would use national and international measures to locate and arrest the suspects.
Howard-Taylor served as vice-president under former President George Weah from 2018 to 2024. She entered politics after her former husband, Charles Taylor, left office in 2003; he was later convicted by a UN-backed tribunal for aiding and abetting rebel groups during Sierra Leone’s civil war.
