MONROVIA, Aug 19 (Reuters) – Liberia has charged former Vice President Jewel Howard-Taylor with drug trafficking, money laundering and other offenses as part of an investigation of a transnational narcotics network, the West African nation’s attorney general said in a statement on Wednesday.
The arrest of Howard-Taylor, ex-wife of convicted war criminal Charles Taylor, comes less than a month after Liberian authorities announced they had seized around $317 million worth of cocaine that was bound for Europe, highlighting the country’s growing role in the global drug trade.
Howard-Taylor was stopped while attempting to leave the country at Roberts International Airport and taken to national police headquarters, according to the statement.
The charges against her also include unlicensed importation of a controlled substance, criminal solicitation and criminal conspiracy, the statement said.
A lawyer for Howard-Taylor could not immediately be reached for comment.
(Reporting by Carielle Doe and Alphonso Toweh; Writing by Robbie Corey-Boulet and Ayen Deng Bior)
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