Published: August 25, 2026
MONROVIA — Former Vice President Jewel Howard-Taylor was sent to jail Wednesday after the Monrovia City Court denied a request from her lawyers to release her on humanitarian grounds, days after she suffered a medical emergency in police custody.
Stipendiary Magistrate Ben Barco issued a writ of arrest naming Howard-Taylor and three foreign nationals on charges including unlicensed importation of controlled drugs, illicit trafficking, abuse of office, criminal conspiracy, criminal facilitation, criminal solicitation, money laundering and aiding the consummation of a crime.
Howard-Taylor, who was vice president from 2018 to 2024, was stopped at Roberts International Airport on Aug. 19 as she prepared to board a flight to Ghana, and held at Liberia National Police headquarters. She suffered a medical emergency in custody and was taken under police escort to the Gomez Institute of Medical Sciences. Her lawyers said at the time that the hospital transfer did not release her from government custody.
Her legal team has rejected the allegations, calling them baseless and politically motivated, and has said it will defend her vigorously.
The writ traces the case to 2021, alleging that three foreign nationals, Sheik Bashiru Kante, Taras Zadereiko and Mihovil Vrovac, conspired to move cocaine into and out of Liberia for onward shipment to Europe. It alleges that Kante introduced the other two to Howard-Taylor in 2022, while she was vice president, and that the four later met at her residence in Congo Town.
The foreign nationals then invited her to Dubai to meet Nikola Ivancic, a Croatian national the complaint identifies as the head of the network, according to the writ.
The writ alleges that in Dubai she received US$45,000 from Ivancic, described as money for shopping, in the presence of the other three, and that after returning to Liberia she requested and received a further US$75,000. It alleges the group discussed using Liberia as a transit route for cocaine bound for Europe.
The government said last week that Howard-Taylor faces charges under the Controlled Drug and Substance Act, the Penal Law and the Anti-Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing Law. The Ministry of Justice said three foreign nationals have been charged in absentia.
None of the allegations has been tested in court, and Howard-Taylor is presumed innocent unless convicted.
