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PP RUEHPA
DE RUEHMV #0091/01 0311741
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
P 311741Z JAN 08
FM AMEMBASSY MONROVIA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 9706
INFO RUEHZK/ECOWAS COLLECTIVE
RUEABND/DEA WASHDC
RUEHBS/USEU BRUSSELS
RUEHUNV/USMISSION UNVIE VIENNA 0007
RHEHAAA/NSC WASH DC

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 MONROVIA 000091 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/28/2018 
TAGS: SNAR PREL PGOV KCRM EAID SOCI LI
SUBJECT: LIBERIA:  EFFORTS TO COMBAT WEST AFRICAN DRUG 
TRAFFICKING 
 
REF: 07 STATE 165562 
 
Classified By: Ambassador Donald E. Booth for Reasons 1.4 (b) and (d). 
 
¶1. (U) SUMMARY:  The Government of Liberia (GOL) does not 
currently have the will or resources to fight 
drug-trafficking.  Liberia is not presently a major 
transshipment point for cocaine bound for Europe, but is 
likely to become so as infrastructure improves and UNMIL 
draws down.  A small number of government officials recognize 
the likelihood of future problems and have begun to work 
towards tougher narcotics laws in the country.  Liberian Drug 
Enforcement Agency has received no bilateral support and 
minimal international support from the United Nations.  The 
Liberian Drug Enforcement Agency (LDEA) will likely be 
absorbed into the Liberia National Police (LNP) as part of a 
larger national security strategy.  Training and 
rehabilitation resources are at the top of the LDEA,s wish 
list. 
 
NARCOTICS TRENDS 
---------------- 
 
¶2. (U) Currently, Liberia experiences low-grade, regional 
trafficking for internal consumption.   Nigerians are 
suspected of bringing in the majority of cocaine and some 
marijuana.  Most is brought overland on trucks across 
Liberia's porous borders. (Note:  According to a press 
account, Bureau of Immigration and Naturalization Director 
for Anti-Child Trafficking Col. Anthony Bonar said that only 
30 of 146 border posts are regularly manned.  End Note.) 
There have also been some reports of vessels docking at small 
ports in Sinoe, Grand Kru, and River Cess Counties.  Cannabis 
is grown primarily in Bong County, but crops can be found 
throughout Liberia. 
 
¶3. (C) The U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) has received 
reporting that some United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) 
officials, especially members of the Nigerian contingent and 
Ukrainian contractors operating UNMIL airlift, are complicit 
in the drug trade, facilitating trafficking by sea and air. 
DEA has also received information that Colombian drug cartels 
have approached GOL officials in an effort to receive 
protection for trafficking networks in Liberia. 
 
¶4. (U) Local consumption largely takes the form of crack and 
marijuana.  The LDEA assesses that many consumers are 
ex-combatants, both new users as well as those still addicted 
from drug use during the war who never had access to 
rehabilitation clinics or therapy.  They also connect these 
users with violent crime in Liberia.  According to the LDEA, 
intravenous drug use is on the rise in Liberia. 
 
¶5. (U) In her Annual Message to the Legislature January 28, 
President Sirleaf said that the LDEA arrested 179 drug 
offenders in 2007, a 44% increase over the previous year, 
noting that many of those arrested were foreigners.  However, 
of the 179 arrested, only nine were convicted.  She called 
for a more effective response to the growing drug menace, and 
greater patrol by the LNP, Customs and Immigration.  She said 
that the LDEA destroyed "huge quantities" of marijuana, 
cocaine and heroin.  (Note: In recent months the GOL has made 
some highly publicized seizures of large quantities of 
cannabis. However, according to the LDEA, 1,405 grams of 
cocaine and only 16.2 grams of heroin were seized and 
destroyed in 2007.  There were no reported seizures of 
amphetamines. End Note.) 
 
LAW ENFORCEMENT EFFORTS AND CAPABILITIES 
---------------------------------------- 
 
¶6. (U) The LDEA currently has 70 officers spread through 
seven counties.  They plan to deploy officers to the 
remaining eight counties this year.  There are officers 
posted at some border crossing points.  They plan to assign 
one officer to Roberts International Airport (RIA) and the 
Freeport of Monrovia.  There are already officers posted at 
the Port of Buchanan.  LDEA has invited UNMIL to assist in 
counternarcotics efforts, but UNMIL has thus far not 
participated.  The LDEA performs raids throughout the 
country, based on tips and information collected by their 
intelligence team.  LDEA routinely performs burn exercises to 
dispose of confiscated drugs. 
 
¶7. (U) The LNP has a drug unit, though it operates primarily, 
and sporadically, in Monrovia.  The LNP and LDEA do not 
coordinate or deconflict operations within Monrovia, though 
there has been some deconfliction of operations in leeward 
 
MONROVIA 00000091  002 OF 003 
 
 
counties.  There have been accusations of corruption within 
all levels of the LNP, to include LNP protection of drug 
traffickers.  LDEA has allegedly arrested LNP officers for 
drug trafficking.  The LNP drug unit was specifically 
targeted as it has never performed a burn exercise, prompting 
the question as to where seized drugs have gone. 
 
¶8. (U) The LDEA does posses and has been trained on drug 
testing kits.  It is unclear how often they use them. 
 
NATIONAL STRATEGY 
----------------- 
 
¶9. (C) Despite the lack of GOL capacity there does not appear 
to be a large-scale trafficking problem in Liberia at 
present.   This is attributed primarily to the fact that the 
infrastructure in Liberia is too poor for large scale 
operations.  The inefficiencies and high expense at the port 
in Monrovia have made the transshipment of any goods 
cumbersome. RIA has few international flights (however, the 
number is growing -- Kenya began flying from Nairobi via 
Accra in April 2007 and Royal Air Maroc began flying from 
Casablanca in December 2007), and roads are hazardous.  Also, 
despite the low priority UNMIL has placed on 
counternarcotics, the mere presence of about 15,000 UNMIL 
troops (and the fact that UNMIL controls all the airports) is 
dissuasive.  However, continued infrastructure development 
and the drawdown of UNMIL, as well as the crackdown on drug 
trafficking in nearby countries, will likely make Liberia a 
more attractive transit point in the future. 
 
¶10. (U) Liberia does not have a clear national 
counternarcotics strategy to deal with this looming threat. 
Liberia does not have any narcotics laws.  The LDEA currently 
operates under a public health law, and all offences are 
bailable, meaning suspects arrested for drug crimes merely 
have to pay a fine in order to be released.  LDEA recently 
drafted an anti-trafficking law, which incorporates 
money-laundering, asset freeze and confiscation regulations. 
The anti-trafficking law is with the Minister of Justice for 
review before going to the legislature for passage. 
 
¶11. (C) GOL discussions regarding a Liberian National 
Security Strategy bogged down in December over a disagreement 
between the Security Pillar and the Governance Commission 
(GC) on consolidation of the intelligence and law enforcement 
agencies, with the Pillar recommending that the LDEA be 
dissolved into the LNP, and the GC arguing for separate 
authorities as checks and balances.  (Note:  the Security 
Pillar, chaired at the ministerial level and comprising GOL 
officials and international partners, is one of four pillars 
of the Liberia Reconstruction and Development Commission. 
The GC is charged with promoting governance reform 
principles.  End Note.)  The two bodies agreed to send 
separate drafts to the President.  Meanwhile, the Ministry of 
Justice, with USG assistance, has completed a draft "Liberian 
National Security and Intelligence Act" that would subsume 
the LDEA into the LNP.  President Sirleaf has not yet 
approved either a National Security Strategy nor a draft 
National Security and Intelligence Act, but has indicated she 
would like to move ahead with submitting the draft Act to the 
legislature soon. 
 
¶12. (U) LDEA has no relationship with regional counterparts 
and there is no information sharing. 
 
¶13. (U) There are no national anti-drug campaigns.  LDEA 
occasionally has spots on radio talk shows to serve this 
purpose. 
 
BILATERAL/INTERNATIONAL SUPPORT 
------------------------------- 
 
¶14. (U) The GOL receives no bilateral support for 
counternarcotics efforts.  UNMIL's International Police 
contingent ran a workshop for LDEA on drug identification in 
¶2006.  In 2005 and 2006 the UN/Office on Drugs and Crime 
sponsored four LDEA officers to attend training in Nigeria. 
They did not receive an invitation in 2007.  The UN is 
renovating an LDEA office in Bong County. 
 
¶15. (U) LDEA will be sending an officer to Dakar, Senegal for 
an upcoming regional conference on cocaine trafficking in 
West Africa.  They also received an invitation for a 
conference in Vienna, Austria for an HIV-Drug conference. 
 
LIBERIAN WISH-LIST 
------------------ 
 
MONROVIA 00000091  003 OF 003 
 
 
 
¶16. (U) The Director of the Liberian DEA told PolOff that all 
assistance would be helpful, specifically logistics in the 
form of vehicles and motorbikes, test kits, and training for 
officers.  Additionally, he emphasized the need for 
rehabilitation services in the country.  Despite the media 
coverage of child soldiers and combatants using the 
cocaine/gunpowder mix there was never a concerted effort to 
send the adult ex-combatants through rehabilitation during 
the disarmament period. 
 
Booth