The International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) has raised concerns over increased drug trafficking in West African states with Liberia being no exception. .
Over the weekend Officers of the Liberia Revenue Authority (LRA) seized a consignment of two kilograms of heroin brought into the country on an Arik Flight from Nigeria.
A bag containing the heroin was sent to Achebe Joseph Uwadioma (AKA, Don Joe), a Nigerian national, who operates a business at Waterside and Mechlin Street, respectively in Monrovia.
The was heroine was packaged and mixed with other foodstuffs to conceal its identity and was being cleared by Mr. Uwadioma’s broker only identified as Lincolnat present.
The heroine was detected by an Officer of Customs Anti-Smuggling and Intelligence Section (ASIS) of the LRA. The seizure is an outcome of a rigorous risk based compliance examination being undertaken by the LRA on cargo entering Liberia through RIA.
LRA, upon seizing the consignment, turned it over to the Liberia Drugs Enforcement Agency (LDEA) for testing and it was confirmed by LDEA that the consignment was heroine. It was also further confirmed by the Liberia National Police Lab as positive for heroine.
The consignment has been turned over to the LDEA for further investigation and disposal. LRA hopes that the investigation will lead to the ring being busted and that the criminals will face the statutory jail time.
LRA Commissioner General Elfrieda Stewart Tamba also said that the LRA, in pursuit of its statutory responsibility to collect lawful revenue, will collaborate with all relevant agencies in preventing the flow of illicit drugs through Liberia ports of entry.
Commissioner Steward-Tamba has meanwhile, thanked the LRA Custom Officers and the other agencies for their swift collaboration.
It can be recalled that Customs, sometimes ago, also seized counterfeit Liberian dollars that were smuggled through the Bo Waterside Land Port, concealed in a television.
Drug trafficking is a growing problem in West Africa as the production of synthetic drugs and their use are increasing in the region.
The board that is under the United Nations has stated that West Africa has for sometimes been a major transit region for trafficking drugs such as cocaine produced in South America going to Europe
