When Joseph Nyuma Boakai Sr. assumed office as Liberia’s 26th president, he set a high standard in the fight against narcotics trafficking. He declared drug abuse and trafficking a national emergency and identified the narcotics trade as a public enemy requiring an urgent, coordinated national response.
Yet the President’s strongest policies have been undermined by the very officials entrusted with implementing them.
While Boakai has publicly declared war on the drug trade, powerful individuals within the security and law-enforcement structure appear to have acted against his mandate.
Their alleged cooperation with traffickers has exposed Liberia to the danger of becoming a major transit route for cocaine and other narcotics in West Africa.
This is the tragedy of President Boakai’s first battle against the drug cartels: he may not have been defeated by the traffickers themselves, but by disloyal officials operating from within the state.
The repeated changes in leadership at the Liberia Drug Enforcement Agency demonstrate the depth of the problem. On several occasions, the President has replaced the agency’s leadership, yet the institution continues to face serious operational and credibility challenges.
Leadership changes alone will not defeat a sophisticated criminal network if the wider security system remains compromised.
The seizure of approximately five tonnes of cocaine between June and July—valued at nearly half a billion dollars—underscores the seriousness of the threat.
With investigations confirming that senior security officials facilitated or protected the shipment, then the issue is far greater than administrative failure. It represents a grave betrayal of the state, a violation of the officials’ oath of office, and a direct challenge to the authority of the Commander-in-Chief.
Ironically, this historic seizure occurred under a president who has done more, at the policy level, to confront Liberia’s narcotics crisis than many of his predecessors.
On the night of July 30, President Boakai dismissed more than a dozen security officials reportedly linked to the cocaine-trafficking investigation and ordered that they face prosecution.
That decision deserves recognition. It demonstrated that the President was prepared to act against individuals within his own administration when the national interest demanded it.
Critics may argue that the dismissals amount to scapegoating or that they do not go far enough.
That criticism is fair.
Nevertheless, the President’s action is significant. It distinguishes Boakai from leaders in a region where narcotics networks are increasingly penetrating political and security institutions and West Africa transitioning from era of warlords o narco-presidents.
West Africa is emerging as a major transit corridor for South American cocaine bound for Europe. Large quantities of cocaine have been seized in the Gulf of Guinea and around Cape Verde in recent years.
According to French publication Le Monde, in March 2024, the French navy reportedly intercepted 10.7 tonnes of cocaine from a fishing vessel traveling from Brazil through the Gulf of Guinea. In September 2025, another shipment reportedly weighing 9.6 tonnes was intercepted in the same area. In 2019, authorities in Cape Verde seized approximately 9.5 tonnes from a vessel traveling from South America toward Morocco.
These seizures do not represent the full scale of the trade. They reflect only what authorities were able to detect and intercept. Available data indicate that cocaine seizures across West Africa increased sharply after 2019, reflecting the growth of production in South America—particularly Colombia—and the rising demand for cocaine in Europe.
Liberia cannot afford to become another weak link in this expanding criminal corridor. The country has already suffered the consequences of corruption, civil conflict and institutional fragility.
It must not now transition from a country of warlords to a country dominated by narco-politicians and drug-financed criminal networks.
This is why President Boakai deserves credit, even amid legitimate criticism of his administration’s security failures.
The standard must remain high, but it must also be fair. A president can establish policy, issue directives and appoint officials, but he cannot personally supervise every port, border crossing, security operation or investigation. As the saying goes, one may give birth to a child, but one cannot control the child’s heart.
President Boakai must, however, do more to identify and remove disloyal officials. He should restructure the security institutions responsible for combating narcotics, strengthen internal oversight and ensure that appointments are based on competence, integrity and professionalism rather than political loyalty.
Officials who exposed the presidency and the Liberian state to criminal networks must be dismissed, investigated and, where the evidence supports it, prosecuted.
The President’s extensive investigation into why traffickers targeted Liberia is therefore welcome. That investigation must be genuinely independent, transparent and protected from political interference.
Liberia should consider bringing in independent prosecutors, forensic investigators and international partners where necessary. The public must be given confidence that the investigation will not be controlled by the same institutions whose officials may have been compromised.
The government must also tighten the administration of Liberia’s seaports and airports. Maritime patrols should be strengthened, cargo-screening systems modernized and intelligence-sharing improved. Because traffickers frequently move narcotics by sea before transferring them to land. Liberia needs a coordinated maritime-security strategy involving the coast guard, customs authorities, the port administration, the police and the Drug Enforcement Agency.
The country must also conduct rigorous background checks on foreign investors, shipping agents, logistics companies and other individuals seeking to operate in Liberia. Authorities should verify identities, beneficial ownership, business histories and sources of wealth.
Investment must be welcomed, but Liberia cannot allow criminal organizations to disguise themselves as legitimate businesses.
President Boakai’s fight is not over. He must continue to push back against the cartels, strengthen the institutions around him and hold accountable those who betray the public trust.
But in a region where some leaders have appeared weak, compromised or unwilling to confront drug networks, Boakai’s willingness to declare narcotics a national emergency and act against officials allegedly implicated in the trade must be acknowledged.
We will continue to demand that the real Joseph Boakai—the reformer promised to Liberia—stand firmly against corruption, disloyalty and organized crime. But we will also give credit where it is due while holding him to the higher standard he set for himself.
Liberia’s drug war will be judged not by the strength of its speeches or the number of officials dismissed, but by whether the state ultimately proves stronger than the traffickers seeking to capture it.
