Published: August 27, 2026
MONROVIA — Every security officer suspended over the cocaine investigation should be charged within 90 days or returned to duty, Sen. Amara Konneh said Wednesday, warning that indefinite suspension without charge amounts to selective justice and that the government risks losing the case the way it lost a US$100 million cocaine prosecution in 2023.
Konneh, a member of the Senate Committee on Defense, Security and Intelligence, made the demand at the Press Union of Liberia’s Edward Wilmot Blyden Intellectual Discourse in Monrovia, on a panel that included Attorney General and Minister of Justice N. Oswald Tweh.
“Charge all suspended officers or reinstate those with no evidence,” he said. “Indefinite suspension without charge is selective justice.”
Konneh said the 2023 case failed on the prosecution’s side rather than the seizure. “Liberia lost the $100M cocaine case in 2023 not because the Weah Administration didn’t seize it, but because the government’s prosecution team at the time didn’t follow the rules to the end,” he said, citing a broken chain of custody, the absence of a financial trail on the cartel and weak prosecution.
He also called for an independent investigation into allegations of corruption by senior security officials, and said the joint task force should publish a single documentation pack answering questions now circulating about police vehicles.
“Rumors are circulating about police vehicles bought from Minnesota, luxury SUVs for officials, and SUVs registered to private citizens allegedly being driven by security chiefs,” he said. “These may be false, but in a drug case of this magnitude, perception is an enemy.”
The pack he asked for would contain Public Procurement and Concessions Commission approval for any vehicle bought with government money, General Services Agency asset registration, Ministry of Finance and Development Planning payment vouchers and Liberia Revenue Authority duty waivers. Sole-source purchases are not themselves a violation, he said, but under PPCC rules they require the commission’s prior approval regardless of value.
If the vehicles are government property, he said, the documents would clear the police and strengthen the prosecution. If they are not, the police should correct the problem before defense lawyers use it against the case.
On funding, Konneh said the pay gap facing drug enforcement officers is itself a corruption risk. “We cannot ask LDEA agents earning $150 to resist a cartel offering $50,000,” he said. “That’s not accountability, that’s temptation.” He said he would push colleagues for direct budget support for the Liberia Drug Enforcement Agency and a forensic drug laboratory, hazard pay and insurance for task force members, and a special drug court with protected judges able to try the cases within 90 days.
He said the government should also enforce Section 14.97 of the 2023 revised drug law, which governs seizure, confiscation and forfeiture, and use forfeited proceeds to build rehabilitation centers in Gbarpolu, Bomi, Montserrado and other counties, starting with a regional approach for cost reasons.
Konneh disclosed a personal stake in the issue, saying three of his nephews are victims of drug use and that one died Friday and was buried Saturday.
He opened by commending President Joseph Boakai for suspending and dismissing senior security officials alleged to be linked to the cartel, the Senate for its oversight and the task force for the seizures and the public burning of the drugs. In earlier governments, he said, a case of that size would have quietly disappeared.
Konneh said Tweh briefed the Senate’s defense and security committee on Tuesday and committed to briefing it every two weeks, which he said would reduce the Senate’s reliance on public information.
The remarks as delivered do not record a response from Tweh, from the Liberia National Police or from Deputy Information Minister Daniel Sando, who was present and whom Konneh named as an opponent in the public argument over the case.
