PHOTO: The Author
By Patrick M. Yattoh, Jr.
If drugs are entering Liberia, moving through Liberia, being distributed in Liberia, and generating money inside Liberia, then the country must be willing to follow the trail beyond the street corner.
That means following the evidence—the calls, the money, the movements, the relationships, the vehicles, the warehouses, the intermediaries, and the people who make the system possible.
The young person selling drugs on the street may be visible, but visibility does not necessarily mean importance. The real power may sit further up the chain.
Liberia needs investigations that go beyond “Who is selling?” and ask the harder questions:
Who is supplying? Who is financing? Who is transporting? Who is facilitating? Who is protecting? Who is laundering the proceeds? And who is profiting?
One arrest should not be the end of an investigation if the evidence points to a larger network. It should be the beginning of asking where the trail leads next.
And if a single phone call can provide the first meaningful lead, then no legitimate investigative lead should be casually dismissed.
Liberia does not need more headlines about drug arrests. Liberia needs to understand—and dismantle—the networks that make the drug trade possible.
Follow the evidence. Follow the connections. Follow the money.
Because one call may identify one person, one person may reveal one network, and one network may reveal an entire system.
The street is only the visible end of the problem. The real fight is against the network behind it.
One call can open the door. The question is whether Liberia will have the courage, capacity, and lawful institutions to follow the trail all the way through.