Monrovia – Liberia continues to be a trafficking and transiting hub for traffickers of narcotic substances.
The Drugs Enforcement Agency (DEA) detachment assigned at the Roberts International Airport has arrested a national of Guinea Bissau for attempting to bring narcotic substances into the country.
Antonio Gomes was arrested with four kilogram of cocaine valued at US$ 34,000 equivalent to LD$2,240,000.00
The latest arrest comes less than three weeks following the arrest of a Nigerian national-Chukwu Samuel Onuoha with a huge quantity of drugs at the Roberts International Airport.
According to the Director General of the DEA, Hon. Anthony K. Souh, suspect Gomes boarded a Kenyan Airways flight number 5539 to Accra, Ghana, from where he transited at the Roberts International Airport.
He emphasized that when suspect Gomes was quizzed by both DEA and Immigration Officers at the RIA about his occupation, he stated that he was a diplomat.
Hon. Souh narrated that suspect Gomes abandoned his traveling bag in the terminal and walked out after realizing that he was being observed by airport security.
“It was at this point that he was placed under arrest for investigation after which he will be transferred to the Magisterial Court in Unification Town, Margibi County for preliminary examination and subsequent prosecution at 113th Circuit Court in Kakata, Margibi County,” Souh added.
Meanwhile, suspect Gomes has been sent to the RIA Magisterial Court in lower Margibi County for trial..
Last year, a Nigerian identified as Damian Obi was arrested by the Drug Enforcement Agency for the importation of a clandestine laboratory equipment for the manufacturing of illicit drugs.
“On October 26, 2015, while loading the goods from the containers on a truck after DEA has taken assignment at the Port, DEA officers recognized the three so-called water pumps or water filters to clandestine laboratory equipment or machines for manufacturing illicit drugs,” DEA Boss Anthony Souh said.
Souh said that the three machines can separate marijuana plant materials from its resin.
Souh said, the equipment for the production of illicit drugs was imported into Liberia through the Freeport of Monrovia on a 20ft container- MRSU- 0105780 of assorted goods from the Republic of China.
Nigerian nationals have been at the center of most of the drug arrest alongside Liberian accomplices, mostly female.