Liberia blames Guinea, Sierra Leone for fueling its drug crisis

By Kemo Cham

Drugs from Guinea, which passes through Sierra Leone’s porous borders, are fuelling Liberia’s drug crisis, the head of the country’s anti-drug agency said.

Christopher Peters, the Officer-In-Charge of the Liberia Drug Enforcement Agency (LDEA), blames Sierra Leone for allowing the illicit drugs from Guinea to pass through its borders into Liberia. He said a lot of the drugs enter through Bo Waterside, the border with the southern Sierra Leonean district of Pujehun, one of the two main official entry points between the two countries.

“From our observations so far Sierra Leone, the border side, and all of the other illegal entries; Sierra Leone is causing difficult problems for us,” Peters told journalists in Monrovia, during the weekly press briefing hosted by the Ministry of Information in Liberia.

Several West African countries have reported increase in drug abuse cases in the last few years, notably Sierra Leone, Guinea, Liberia, Gambia, Senegal and Guinea Bissau. The main drug at the center of the epidemic is called Kush, a synthetic cannabinoid substance which is manufactured using various chemicals. But there are several other substances involved in the crisis, like cocaine and heroin.

Sierra Leone’s government in April declared a state of national emergency after reports of many deaths attributed to Kush among its youths. It has formed a national taskforce charged with dealing with the crisis.

Reports indicate that Liberian authorities feel their drug crisis is being fuelled by its neighbours, particularly Guinea, the source of the drugs, and they are concerned that Sierra Leoneans aren’t doing enough to prevent the flow of the drugs via their border. The Liberian anti-drug agency has reported several instances in which Sierra Leonean nationals were detained on their side of the border with drugs. One of the latest incidents involved a serving member of the Republic of Sierra Leone Armed Force, identified as Seryai Saffa. The 47-year old army officer was arrested on Saturday, June 1, with twenty two plates of compressed marijuana at the Bo Waterside port of entry.

Last Friday, another Sierra Leonean, Nabie Coker, was arrested with 20 plates of compressed marijuana at the same border entry point.  

“Over the last two, or three days, there have been so many Kush coming out of Sierra Leone. It is a problem for us and we have to do something about it,” said Peters, who took charge of Liberia’s anti-drug agency in May following the suspension of the top brass over infighting.

Speaking at the Ministry of Information press briefing on Thursday, June 20^th, Peters lamented that the agency is under-resourced, rendering it unable to respond accordingly to the crisis.

He was quoted saying that the agency will need to be equipped with the latest modern technology, including the use of security dogs to provide protection at its borders, especially those with Sierra Leone.