MONROVIA – The Liberia Drug Enforcement Company (LDEA), the nation’s primary anti-narcotics establishment, has change into a mirror of Liberia’s deep institutional decay. Riddled with inner energy struggles, public scandals, and allegations of complicity by authorities actors within the very crimes it’s meant to fight, the LDEA right now stands much less as a logo of hope and extra as an emblem of failure within the nation’s combat in opposition to illicit medicine.
By Selma Lomax | [email protected] & Obediah Johnson
The company has as soon as once more discovered itself within the highlight following the August 28 dismissal of its high three officers — Director Common Anthony Okay. Souh, Deputy Director for Administration Gwee Forkpa, and Deputy Director for Operations Sebastian Farr.
President Joseph Boakai, citing “administrative causes,” eliminated the management workforce simply months after appointing them, in what many see as one more determined try to salvage the LDEA’s crumbling credibility.
“These dismissals are geared toward strengthening our collective resolve in reaching a rustic freed from illicit medicine and substances,” President Boakai acknowledged. His choice to usher in a short lived management workforce composed of officers seconded from the Liberia Nationwide Police (LNP) and the Nationwide Safety Company (NSA) marks the third main shake-up on the LDEA since he assumed workplace in early 2024.
However beneath these recurring management purges lies a much more troubling sample — one through which the company meant to be the watchdog of Liberia’s drug combat has change into paralyzed by inner chaos, undermined by political interference, and infiltrated by the very felony networks it’s alleged to dismantle.
The LDEA’s downward spiral intensified in early 2024 when President Boakai appointed former police strongman Abraham Kromah as Director Common. His appointment shortly turned controversial as Kromah clashed publicly along with his deputy, Hassan Fadiga. Kromah accused Fadiga of insubordination and of leaking inner issues to social media, however Fadiga retaliated with explosive allegations — claiming that Kromah was defending drug traffickers, appointing tribal allies to key positions with out benefit, and blatantly disregarding company protocols.
What adopted was unprecedented and a near-violent showdown on the company’s headquarters, with Fadiga allegedly brandishing a firearm within the workplace. Police had been known as in to defuse the standoff.
In the meantime, then-Deputy Director for Administration Gbawou Kowou and Fadiga introduced additional costs in opposition to Kromah, resulting in the suspension of all three by President Boakai. The fallout reportedly led to a lack of confidence from worldwide companions, together with the U.S. State Division and the United Nations Workplace on Medicine and Crime (UNODC), each of which had beforehand supported LDEA packages.
Anthony Okay. Souh was appointed in late 2024 to stabilize the company, however his quick tenure shortly unraveled. His deputy, Sebastian Farr, authored a damning inner report accusing newly appointed senior officers Abraham Okai Payne and Aaron Karzon of widespread misconduct.
Farr’s letter detailed incidents the place the officers allegedly carried out unauthorized raids, used unregistered semi-automatic firearms, extorted suspects, launched detainees with out correct process, and even tried to bribe him. He additionally accused them of leaking delicate company paperwork to the general public.
“The credibility of this company is hanging by a thread,” Farr wrote. “If we proceed to permit rogue officers to run operations unchecked, we danger shedding no matter public belief stays.”
As a substitute of being addressed, Farr’s considerations had been reportedly ignored, and the company continued to function in dysfunction — a development that has plagued each management workforce on the LDEA over the previous 5 years.
Much more disturbing are the rising allegations that parts inside the authorities itself are complicit in Liberia’s drug trafficking downside. Throughout a Ministry of Info press briefing in July 2025, then-Deputy Director Gwee Forkpa delivered a shocking rebuke of Liberia’s complete political institution.
“If you happen to go into the sectors, you will see any individual concerned with medicine,” Forkpa mentioned. “So once you’re preventing medicine, you’re preventing individuals in all places.”
Forkpa criticized the operational capability of the LDEA, stating that the company is overwhelmed, underfunded, and largely manned by unpaid volunteers. “The system may be very dangerous,” he mentioned. “Greater than half of our officers are volunteers — no coaching, no pay, no logistics. How do you count on to combat organized crime with this sort of setup?”
His remarks had been chilling not solely of their substance however of their implication — that the very construction of the LDEA, and the political atmosphere round it, is so compromised that real anti-drug efforts are almost inconceivable.
Forkpa’s feedback echoed these made years earlier by LDEA Commander Martha Massaley, who in 2022 instructed lawmakers {that a} sitting legislator had been caught trafficking medicine however was by no means prosecuted.
Massaley collapsed mid-testimony and by no means returned to finish her assertion. Her sudden well being disaster and silence afterward solely deepened public suspicion of high-level cover-ups.
These statements have contributed to a rising public perception that the nation’s anti-drug marketing campaign is being intentionally sabotaged by these inside the political elite. It’s a perception that has been additional validated by latest developments.
Senator Amara Konneh, a outstanding critic of the LDEA’s dysfunction, mentioned the continued turmoil is damaging the Boakai administration’s picture and undermining public belief.
“The LDEA saga is making President Joseph Boakai’s administration look more and more ineffective in preventing medicine, and hopelessness is spreading amongst residents,” Konneh mentioned. “Younger customers and people scuffling with habit, the true victims on this state of affairs, want our help, not the neglect that has resulted from the mess on the LDEA.”
Senator Konneh mentioned the recurring management modifications on the company are a symptom of deeper issues. “The President’s choice to fireside high LDEA officers twice inside 18 months will be attributed to 2 primary elements that political interference within the vetting of appointees by completely different factions within the President’s ruling alliance, and the infiltration of drug cartels.”
He pointed to a very troubling case involving LDEA officers at Roberts Worldwide Airport (RIA), who arrested a Liberian lady for drug trafficking and livestreamed the incident on Fb — a transfer that drew public reward for its transparency.
“These officers ought to have been honored and promoted for his or her vigilance,” Senator Konneh mentioned. “As a substitute, they had been suspended and transferred from the airport. In the meantime, the LDEA Deputy for Administration, who bravely uncovered the involvement of highly effective authorities officers within the illicit drug commerce throughout a dwell MICAT Press Convention, has been fired. The cartel is at work.”
Within the face of mounting public frustration, the Boakai administration has pledged to spend US$3.5 million on drug rehabilitation and prevention packages. However civil society teams and well being suppliers say solely a small portion of that funding has reached frontline providers.
In the meantime, a 2023 UNFPA report discovered that one in 5 Liberian youth use narcotics, and there are greater than 866 recognized drug dens working in Monrovia alone.
Tensions boiled over earlier this yr through the nationwide “Say No to Medicine” protest, which noticed tens of hundreds of residents — significantly girls and youth — flood the streets of Monrovia demanding motion. The protest known as for stiffer legal guidelines, extra accountability, and an overhaul of the LDEA. Whereas the occasion garnered vital media consideration, it additionally highlighted the rising divide between public expectations and authorities response.
In an obvious effort to rebuild belief, President Boakai has appointed an interim management workforce composed of officers from exterior the company. DCP Fitzgerald T. M. Biago of the Liberia Nationwide Police is now the Officer-in-Cost, supported by NSA’s Ernest T. Tarpeh and ACP Patrick B. Kormazu.
The President has additionally directed the Ministry of Justice to conduct a complete 90-day evaluation of the LDEA’s construction, mandate, and operational effectiveness. Nevertheless, critics are already questioning whether or not this can produce lasting change or just change into one other bureaucratic train with no actual accountability.
As Liberia confronts its drug epidemic, the destiny of the LDEA is changing into a litmus take a look at for whether or not the federal government can reform a damaged establishment or whether or not the company will proceed to function a cautionary story of how corruption, political interference, and impunity can destroy even probably the most important nationwide businesses.
