PHOTO: Marcus D. Zehyoue, LDEA chief
By William Selmah, wselmah@gmail.com
The Drug Enforcement Agency of Liberia (LDEA) has confiscated a huge quantity of narcotic drugs at the Roberts International Airport in Margibi County, which is 59 kilometers from Monrovia.
The agency said it seized the illicit drugs on Wednesday, June 2, 2021. And it put the street value of the banned substance at 30 million Liberian dollars. The current exchange rate between the United States dollar and Liberia dollar is USD1-LD 170.
Two Liberian women, Jamesetta Ferguson and Garmai Jallah are being held as prime suspects, according to LDEA Executive Director Marcus D. Zehyoue, who had recently vowed zero tolerance for drugs trafficking..
Addressing the media following the seizure, Mr. Zehyoue said the drugs were discovered in an abandoned box offloaded from a plane that had come in from Nigeria.
He further explained that suspicion mounted after no one immediately came to take delivery of the package. Meanwhile he said a lady (one of the suspects) kept coming back and forth in hallway and later began talking with a security officer.
The LDEA chief said soon as they crossed the package outside, one of the ladies immediately came to take delivery of it, at which time she was nabbed.
One of the suspects – Ferguson said though she was asked by a friend to collect her package on arrival at the airport, she did not know it contained drugs. She said she was only told that it was a package containing wearing.
Suspects Ferguson and Jallah will be formally charged and sent to court, Zehyoue told Reporters.