Former Vice President Jewel Howard-Taylor Tuesday appeared in court to face multiple drug-trafficking and financial crimes charges.
Prosecutors are alleging that she accepted $135,000 from an intermediary linked to a transnational cocaine network and agreed to help establish Liberia as a transit hub.
The charges stem from alleged meetings in Dubai in 2022 between Howard-Taylor and members of the network, according to the Joint Special Investigation Team. Prosecutors say she received $45,000 during the trip for shopping and later obtained an additional $75,000 through a man identified as Sheikh Bashiru Kante for her Jewel Star Fish Foundation. A further $15,000 was allegedly paid in August 2026.
Investigators accuse Howard-Taylor of maintaining contact with members of the network through August 2026. The case is supported by travel records, audio recordings, witness testimony and other evidence, prosecutors said.
Howard-Taylor faces charges including illicit trafficking, the importation and exportation of controlled substances, criminal conspiracy, criminal facilitation, criminal solicitation, money laundering and aiding the consummation of a crime.
The indictment, however, does not establish a direct link between Howard-Taylor and the physical movement of cocaine, according to the allegations outlined in the case. Prosecutors also have not said whether Kante is a drug trafficker or whether he has been charged.
Howard-Taylor, 63, was arrested on Aug. 19. She is being held at Monrovia Central Prison after the court rejected her lawyers’ request that she be placed in compassionate detention at the Gómes Institute of Medical Science.
The case has drawn public attention because of Howard-Taylor’s former position and the potential political consequences for President Joseph Boakai’s administration, which has made public accountability a central theme of its response to Liberia’s expanding narcotics investigations.
Sam G. Toe, a former deputy education minister, said the government’s case must be sufficiently strong to withstand scrutiny. A failed prosecution, he warned, could expose the government to civil claims and raise questions over Howard-Taylor’s constitutional or statutory immunity, while causing serious damage to her personal, professional and political reputation.
The allegations have not been tested at trial, and Howard-Taylor has not been convicted of any offense.
