A 202.5 kg shipment declared as botanical powder, coffee and candy — sent from Malaysia and cleared through Roberts International Airport customs — is now being tested for narcotics after drawing suspicion, FrontPageAfrica has learned. The development adds to a year marked by escalating cocaine seizures that have placed Liberia at the center of West Africa’s trafficking corridor.
Monrovia – Liberian authorities are testing materials recovered from a shipment that arrived at Roberts International Airport (RIA) via DHL from Malaysia to determine whether it is narcotics, according to documents obtained by FrontPageAfrica Saturday.
FrontPageAfrica has been informed that Liberian investigators are working with US authorities as part of ongoing probe into the recent wave of drug busts in Liberia.
Paperwork in possession of FPA shows the shipment — declared as “Botanical Powder, Coffee, Candy,” weighing roughly 202.5 kg — was sent by Dynamic Ace Global Sdn Bhd of Selangor, Malaysia, and consigned to a Tan Gouet Gerard at an address on Fiamah Coleman Avenue, Monrovia.
Photographs reviewed by FPA show the consignment arrived packed across multiple DHL “GoGreen Plus” cartons, each marked with recommended-weight guides and shipping labels citing waybill number 96 5091 8255. Shipping labels further indicate the consignment was broken into multiple pieces — one carton examined was marked “Piece 3/9,” with an individual weight of 22.5 kg against a total shipment weight of 202.5 kg, suggesting the shipment arrived as nine separate cartons rather than a single package. Inside, the goods were packaged as ordinary consumer wellness products: boxes of “Aceguard” — an herbal immune-support powder branded under the “Dynace” label, sold in sachets — sat alongside foil pouches of “Triple Root Coffee,” an arabica blend infused with ginseng-style root extracts, and slim cartons of “Rocenta,” described on its packaging as a botanical drink mix featuring lotus and other herbal ingredients. On paper, the shipment reads as a routine consignment of herbal supplements and gourmet coffee.
Records show the Liberia Revenue Authority assessed the shipment at RIA’s collectorate on September 18, 2026, and it was released after $437.65 in duties, levies and GST were paid in cash — before the material apparently drew suspicion.
Liberia Drug Enforcement Agency and local customs officials are yet to confirm at what stage the parcels were flagged and what triggered testing.
A separate document obtained by FPA — a Laissez-Passer issued by police in Danané, Côte d’Ivoire, dated September 9, 2026 — records travel clearance for an Ivorian national heading to Liberia; its connection to the shipment, if any, is unconfirmed.
Context: A Year of Escalating Busts
If confirmed, this would be the latest in a string of major narcotics interceptions that have put Liberia at the center of West Africa’s cocaine-trafficking corridor this year:
- June 8, 2026 — LDEA and joint security intercepted 198 compressed plates of cocaine (about 237.6 kg) hidden in six cargo boxes at RIA, bound for Europe via Brussels Airlines, valued at an estimated US$19.2 million.
- Late June–July — Lawmakers summoned LDEA, immigration, customs and airport officials over the case; five suspects were eventually charged.
- July 22, 2026 — Security forces raided a warehouse in Duazon, Margibi County, detaining two foreign nationals in what was then called the country’s largest cocaine haul.
- July 21–23, 2026 — Police announced an even larger seizure: nearly four tonnes of cocaine, worth an estimated $317 million.
- August 19, 2026 — Former Vice President Jewel Howard-Taylor was arrested and later remanded in custody in connection with what officials called one of the biggest drug busts in Liberia’s history, alongside two Croatian nationals and a Ukrainian national.
Civil-society groups have repeatedly flagged Liberia’s growing role as a transit hub for cocaine moving from South America toward European and Middle Eastern markets, and criticized a pattern where seizures are heavily publicized but prosecutions stall.
This developing story will be updated as more information becomes available.
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