A Kenyan national, Larnard Bonancy Arondo, has been found guilty of three counts—importation of drugs, criminal conspiracy, and facilitation—after attempting to smuggle heroin worth US$388,890 through Roberts International Airport (RIA) in February 2025. The verdict, secured by the Ministry of Justice prosecution team in collaboration with the Liberia Drug Enforcement Agency (LDEA), gives the defendant four days to respond.
On February 1, 2025, Arondo was intercepted at RIA after arriving on Ethiopian Airlines Flight ET-933 from Thailand. During a routine security search, she was found in possession of 8.642 kilograms of heroin, valued at US$388,890. She was arrested along with Abel S. Gbedia, a Liberian national.
The conviction of suspect Arondo is welcome news for many Liberians whose families have suffered from the actions of drug traffickers, like her. It is also a major boost to the LDEA, especially following the August 7, 2025 nationwide “Say No to Drugs Campaign”, and the growing public pressure on the government to tackle the rising drug crisis. The current Interim Management Team at the LDEA, headed by DCP Fitzgerald T.M. Biago of the Liberia National Police (LNP) as Officer-in-Charge (OIC), along with Ernest T. Tarpeh, Assistant Director for Special Services at the NSA, serving as Deputy for Administration/Investigation, and ACP Patrick B. Kormazu of the LNP, serving as Deputy for Operations, together with the men and women of the agency expressed their satisfaction with the outcome of the case.
They noted that this achievement reflects their mandate to ensure that all drug-related cases, past and present, are thoroughly pursued to guarantee justice is served.
