Liberia Prosecutes Former Vice President On Drug Trafficking and Money Laundering Charges
MONROVIA, Liberia — The Justice Ministry announced on Wednesday that it has charged former Vice President Jewel Howard‑Taylor with drug trafficking, money laundering, and related offenses as part of an investigation into a suspected transnational narcotics network.
Howard‑Taylor, who served as Vice President from 2018 to 2024, was stopped while attempting to depart from Robert International Airport and taken to the Liberal National Police headquarters, the ministry said in a statement.
She now faces multiple felony counts, including unlawful importation, sale, distribution, and transportation of controlled substances, drug trafficking, criminal solicitation, criminal facilitation, criminal conspiracy, and money laundering.
Her marriage extended to her late husband, former President Charles Taylor, who was convicted by an international tribunal for sponsoring atrocities in Sierra Leone.
Additionally, the government charged three foreign nationals in absentia for their alleged participation in the network: Croatian Nikolai Ivancic, Mihovil Vrovac, and Ukrainian Tara Zaderieko, prompting authorities to seek their arrest.
These developments occur amid last month’s report of Liberia’s largest-ever drug seizure—tons of cocaine reportedly worth around $336 million—which investigators linked to senior law‑enforcement officials; the two matters are considered unrelated.
Over the past several years, West Africa has increasingly functioned as a critical transit hub for cocaine bound for travel to Europe, with traffickers capitalizing on porous borders and limited enforcement across the region.
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