Liberia’s ex-vice president will await trial on drug trafficking and other charges in prison

Liberia’s former vice president, Jewel Howard-Taylor, will be incarcerated until her trial begins on drug trafficking and other charges, after a court in West African nation denied her request for release due to a medical condition. The court ruled against her release on humanitarian grounds to receive medical treatment at a local hospital in Monrovia, where she had been due to medical emergency, including an asthma attack and elevated blood pressure while in police custody after her arrest.

Along with three other foreigners charged while absent, Howard-Taylor, the ex-wife of former Liberian president Charles Taylor, faces multiple charges of drug trafficking, money laundering, and other offenses as part of an investigation into an alleged international narcotics network. She served as vice president from 2018 to 2024.

Police arrested her on August 19 at Roberts International Airport when she tried to leave Liberia. Her attorneys claim the allegations are politically motivated, but authorities maintain the case is supported by travel records, audio recordings, witness testimonies, and evidence of her alleged ties to the transnational cocaine trafficking ring.

Last month, Liberian authorities confiscated and incinerated approximately 4.2 metric tons of cocaine, valued at around $317 million, implicating several high-ranking police officers in the trafficking scheme, which has been connected to her. Over the past few years, West Africa has become a major route for cocaine smuggled from South America to Europe, thanks to porous borders and weak enforcement in some parts of the region.