British newspaper – The Guardian has placed Dutch fugitive Jos Leijdekkers at the center of Liberia’s record $317 million cocaine seizure, raising questions about why the international drug kingpin has not been publicly identified as a target of the Liberian investigation.
The October 14 report, drawing on Western intelligence assessments and police sources, alleges that Leijdekkers has expanded his cocaine trafficking network beyond Sierra Leone into Liberia, Guinea-Bissau and Ghana.
The investigation also raises concerns about possible failures or complicity within Liberia’s security apparatus, reporting that witnesses described police officers applauding Leijdekkers’ convoy as it crossed a border, probably Bo Waerside.
The allegations present a significant challenge for Liberian authorities, who have pursued criminal cases arising from major cocaine seizures but have not, in the indictment named Leijdekkers as a defendant.
On July 21, Liberian authorities announced the seizure of nearly four tonnes of cocaine at a property in Duazon, near Monrovia, in what became the country’s largest drug bust.
The drugs were valued at approximately $317 million, according to Liberian authorities. Two foreign nationals, identified on the seizure as Serbian and Colombian Spanish, were arrested in connection with the shipment.
The Guardian subsequently reported that intelligence sources attributed the cocaine to Leijdekkers, one of Europe’s most-wanted cocaine traffickers.
According to the newspaper, sources said Leijdekkers returned to Freetown, Sierra Leone, from Liberia on July 20, the day before the seizure was announced. The sources also reportedly recognized a man arrested in connection with the Monrovia shipment as someone seen with Leijdekkers in Freetown.
Why is Leijdekkers absent from the indictment?
A special grand jury indictment in Montserrado County alleges that an international network developed plans to make Liberia a reception, storage, transit and onward-shipment point for cocaine destined principally for Europe and other foreign markets.
The indictment names Croatian nationals Nikola Ivancic and Mihovil Vrhovac, Ukrainian national Taras Zadereiko, Serbian national Srdan Seles and Colombian Spanish national Johann David Garces Grajales, alongside Liberian business figures and current or former public officials.
It alleges that the network operated over approximately six years, beginning in 2021 and continuing into 2026. It also implicates former Vice President Jewel Howard-Taylor in an alleged arrangement to provide high-level political protection.
Yet Leijdekkers’ absence from the indictment raises a fundamental question: Have Liberian investigators examined whether the Dutch fugitive was connected to the cocaine shipment, and, if so, what did that investigation establish?
The uncertainty is especially consequential given the scale of the seizure and the Guardian’s attribution of the cocaine to his network.
The Gregory Coleman question
The controversy also intersects with an earlier Oracle News Daily report titled “Liberia: Gregory Coleman Drove to Freetown to Meet Cocaine King’s Father-in-Law.”
The report raises questions about Police Inspector General Gregory Coleman’s reported trip to Sierra Leone and the circumstances surrounding the meeting.
The trip, considered alongside the Guardian’s subsequent account of Leijdekkers’ regional movements, creates a legitimate subject for journalistic scrutiny of the contacts and decisions of senior law enforcement officials.
The relevant questions are factual: What was the purpose of the trip? Whom did Coleman meet? Was the visit connected to official law enforcement cooperation? Were the circumstances disclosed to the appropriate authorities?
Answers would help determine whether the trip has any material connection to the investigation.
