The defendants in the US$100 million cocaine case were on Thursday, May 18, 2023 found not guilty by an empaneled jury of Criminal Court “C”, Temple of Justice.
Four persons were indicted by the government in connection with the shipment of the cocaine, and they have been tried on multiple charges, including criminal conspiracy, money laundering, unlicensed possession of controlled drugs and unlicensed importation of controlled drugs.
It was the US embassy near Monrovia that alerted the Liberian government about the huge cocaine drugs brought into the country on September 22, 2022.
Prior to the commencement of the final argument between state prosecutors and defense lawyers, the clerk of court was ordered by the judge to have a devotion, which was followed by a prayer, which had never happened in a major trial.
Both the prosecution and defense team were given two hours each for their final arguments, including their law citations.
During the final argument, state prosecutors prayed for the jury to bring down a guilty verdict against the defendants on ground that they all planned to import the drug in Liberia from Brazil, which tracking number and bill of landing were found with one of the defendants, Malam Conte, after he claimed that he came to do a good business and later surfaced to frozen food.
The defense lawyers, on the other hand, prayed for the jurors to bring down a not-guilty verdict in favor of the defendants on ground that they were not the importers of the containers, neither they found the alleged drugs in their possession; rather, it was found with TRH who imported the containers and the containers were found in their warehouse in Topo Village, Japan Freeway, and the containers were never searched by those entities responsible to do so at the Freeport of Monrovia due to instructions from the shipping line and the Liberia Revenue Authority.
The defense lawyers wondered why the Government of Liberia (GOL) left out the importer of the containers that contained the alleged drugs and held innocent young people. They alleged that there are big hands behind the alleged drugs, and that the government knows about it but chose to hold innocent people.
“Why they didn’t arrest George Abi Jaoudi whose name surfaced on the US$40 million drugs that was brought into the country after the arrest of the US$100 million cocaine drug?” defense lawyers questioned the jurors.
“TRH is the importer of drugs in this country and they have never been arrested, but because the US government alarmed on the US$100 million drug, that is why they arrested those innocent people as a means of cover-up,” the defense lawyers alleged.
Defense lawyers prayed court that the US$200K seized from the defendants by prosecution be turned over to the sheriff of the court.
After the deliberations from prosecution and defense, the jurors determined that the defendants were not guilty of the act, and clear them of all the crimes they were accused of.
Meanwhile, Criminal Court “C” has released the defendants to go their way as freed men, as it appears like they were wrongly accused by the prosecution in the matter.