MONROVIA – Former presidential candidate Tiawan Saye Gongloe has intensified his call for an independent investigation into Liberia’s cocaine crisis, warning that unchecked trafficking could penetrate state institutions, compromise national security and weaken public trust.
Former presidential candidate and political leader of the Liberia People’s Party (LPP), Tiawan Saye Gongloe, is urging President Joseph Nyuma Boakai to establish an independent commission of inquiry into Liberia’s growing narcotics crisis, arguing that the scale of recent cocaine seizures raises questions that ordinary law-enforcement operations alone cannot adequately answer.
Gongloe said the discovery of massive quantities of cocaine in Liberia should be treated as a national-security emergency rather than a series of isolated criminal cases involving couriers and suspected traffickers.
He contends that the investigation must expose the broader network behind the shipments, including financiers, organizers, facilitators, protectors and any individuals within state institutions who may have enabled or assisted the alleged trafficking operations.
“This is not simply an LDEA matter, a police matter, or an airport-security matter,” Gongloe said. “It is a national-security crisis, and if we fail to confront it comprehensively, it could become a threat to the very survival of the Liberian state.”
His call comes amid heightened public concern following the seizure of nearly four metric tons of cocaine in Duazon, Margibi County, after an earlier seizure of approximately 237.6 kilograms at Roberts International Airport.
The unprecedented scale of the seizures, Gongloe argues, suggests an operation requiring significant financial resources, logistical coordination and access to transportation and security networks.
He therefore insists that investigators must look beyond the individuals physically found with the narcotics.
Gongloe wants investigators to determine who financed the shipments, who arranged their arrival, who received the drugs, who transported them, who provided protection and whether anyone within Liberia’s political, security or economic structures facilitated the operation.
At the same time, the LPP leader has cautioned against turning allegations into convictions, emphasizing that every suspect must be afforded constitutional protections and due process.
“I am not accusing any individual who has not been proven guilty,” he said. “Every person accused of a crime is entitled to due process, and every accused person is presumed innocent until proven guilty.”
But Gongloe argues that the presumption of innocence cannot become a barrier to a rigorous investigation.
“The rule of law requires a fearless, impartial and professional investigation,” he maintained. “It requires evidence. It requires accountability. And where the evidence establishes criminal responsibility, it requires prosecution.”
Calls For Independent Inquiry
Gongloe acknowledged measures reportedly taken by the Boakai administration in response to the narcotics investigation, including suspensions, dismissals, arrests, charges and investigations involving personnel connected to the unfolding case.
“For those actions, Mr. President, I say thank you,” Gongloe said. “When a government takes action in the right direction, responsible citizens should acknowledge it.”
But he immediately warned that administrative actions alone cannot address the deeper institutional questions exposed by the investigation.
“But I must also say respectfully and firmly: Mr. President, this is not enough,” he declared.
His principal demand is the establishment of an independent commission with a broad mandate to investigate the cocaine seizures and Liberia’s wider narcotics-trafficking environment.
For Gongloe, independence is critical because personnel from law-enforcement, intelligence, drug-control and security institutions could themselves become subjects of investigation.
He proposed that the commission include specialists in criminal investigation, narcotics trafficking, financial intelligence, forensic accounting, money laundering, organized crime, constitutional and criminal law, cybersecurity, border security and asset tracing.
The body, he said, should have sufficient legal authority to obtain documents and testimony, examine financial transactions, trace assets and identify alleged facilitators, protectors and beneficiaries while respecting constitutional safeguards.
Gongloe also wants the commission’s findings made public, except where legitimate national-security concerns require specific information to remain confidential.
‘Follow The Money’
At the heart of Gongloe’s proposal is a financial investigation into the cocaine network.
“Cocaine is the commodity. Money is the motive. Corruption is often the bridge between criminal money and legitimate institutions,” he said.
He urged investigators to scrutinize unexplained wealth, property acquisitions, businesses, bank transactions, suspicious financial transfers, airport and immigration records, shipping activities and relationships between suspected traffickers and influential individuals.
“Follow the cocaine money. Follow suspicious financial transactions. Follow unexplained wealth. Follow properties and businesses. Follow bank accounts,” Gongloe said.
He also called for investigators to examine relevant communications, movements and chains of command where legally authorized.
His position is that the investigation must be insulated from political status.
“If the evidence leads to a poor man, investigate him. If it leads to a police officer, investigate him. If it leads to a businessman, investigate him. If it leads to a minister, investigate him. If it leads to a legislator, investigate him,” he declared.
“And if the evidence leads to someone close to the President, investigate him.”
The statement amounts to a direct warning against selective justice, with Gongloe arguing that the government must not allow low-level suspects to bear the consequences while individuals with greater political or institutional influence escape scrutiny.
Beyond The Drug Seizures
Gongloe has also broadened the debate, arguing that Liberia’s cocaine crisis should be examined within the context of longstanding concerns over corruption, institutional weaknesses, political patronage and accountability.
He believes large-scale international criminal operations can exploit vulnerabilities within government institutions, financial systems, border controls and security structures.
The former presidential candidate referenced controversies surrounding a multimillion-dollar project in Foya, Lofa County, as well as allegations of illegal mining along the Liberia-Guinea border, but stopped short of linking either matter to the cocaine investigation.
“I have no basis to make such an accusation without evidence,” Gongloe said.
Instead, he argued that the government should provide transparent explanations whenever questions arise about the financing of major public projects, unexplained wealth or activities with potential national-security implications.
“Follow the money and follow the evidence,” he said.
Haiti Warning Looms
Gongloe’s most serious warning is his comparison of Liberia’s institutional vulnerabilities with developments in Haiti.
While acknowledging that the two countries have different histories and circumstances, he said Haiti demonstrates how criminal networks can gradually undermine state authority when corruption, institutional weakness and compromised security structures are allowed to deepen.
“A country does not wake up one morning and discover that gangs control its streets,” Gongloe warned. “Institutional deterioration occurs gradually.”
He argued that the process begins when corruption becomes normalized, criminal groups purchase protection, security personnel become compromised, young people are recruited and criminal networks accumulate financial and political influence.
“That is the road Liberia must refuse to travel,” he declared.
Gongloe therefore wants Liberia to treat the cocaine seizures as an early warning rather than wait for organized criminal groups to become entrenched within the country’s institutions.
Youth At Risk
The LPP leader also placed Liberia’s young population at the center of the narcotics debate.
He warned that widespread unemployment, poverty and limited economic opportunities could make young Liberians vulnerable to recruitment by international drug networks capable of offering financial rewards far beyond what legitimate employment provides.
“What happens when a young Liberian begins to believe that a drug dealer has more opportunities than a university graduate?” he asked.
Gongloe said Liberia’s response must consequently extend beyond arrests and seizures to education, employment, public health, youth development, border security, intelligence gathering and criminal justice.
“Arrests alone will not solve it,” he said. “We must destroy the economic ecosystem that makes narcotics profitable.”
He also appealed to young Liberians to reject recruitment into the narcotics trade as couriers, distributors or protectors, warning that temporary financial rewards could permanently destroy their futures.
Boakai Faces Defining Test
Gongloe has framed the cocaine investigation as a major test of President Boakai’s commitment to accountability and institutional reform.
“You came to office promising integrity. You promised accountability. You promised to fight corruption. You promised to restore confidence in government,” Gongloe reminded the President.
“You now have an historic opportunity to demonstrate that those promises mean something.”
He called on the President to establish an independent commission, equip it with the necessary authority and ensure that investigators can follow evidence without political interference.
For Gongloe, the objective should not be political punishment but the establishment of facts and the application of the law.
“If the evidence proves guilt, prosecute. If the evidence proves innocence, clear the innocent,” he said.
He also urged political parties to resist turning the narcotics investigation into another partisan confrontation, arguing that Liberia’s security and institutional integrity should take precedence over political calculations.
Gongloe wants Liberians to ask fundamental questions: Who protects traffickers? Where does the money go? Who benefits? Can security institutions be trusted? And are Liberia’s institutions strong enough to withstand organized criminal influence?
“This is not merely a political question,” he said. “It is a Liberian question.”
As the investigation continues, Gongloe’s demand for an independent inquiry places additional pressure on the government to demonstrate that the cocaine crisis will be pursued beyond the immediate seizures and arrests.
“The cocaine may be seized. The cocaine may be destroyed. But the lesson must not be destroyed with it,” he warned.
For Gongloe, the defining issue is no longer merely who transported the narcotics, but who financed the operation, who facilitated it, who provided protection and who ultimately benefited.
“The deeper questions are: Who opened the door? Who protected the door? Who benefited from the door being open? And who has the power to close it permanently?”
He warned that Liberia cannot afford to wait until organized crime becomes deeply embedded in its institutions before taking decisive action.
“We survived civil war. We survived Ebola. We survived political instability. We must not now lose Liberia to organized crime,” Gongloe said.
“Liberia must not become Haiti.”
His message is ultimately a demand for institutional vigilance: investigate independently, follow the money, protect due process, prosecute where evidence establishes guilt, clear the innocent and confront the vulnerabilities that allowed a massive narcotics operation to take root in Liberia.
For Gongloe, the greatest danger is not simply the cocaine already seized, but the possibility that the systems established to protect the Republic could themselves be compromised by the criminal networks behind it.
