From the Vice Presidents office to a cell at Monrovia airport how did Liberias most prominent female politician end up at the centre of a 233 million pound transnational cocaine scandal.

Former Liberian Vice President Jewel Howard Taylor has been charged with drug trafficking, money laundering and a range of other offences as part of an investigation into an alleged transnational narcotics network.

Liberias justice ministry confirmed she was detained on Wednesday at Roberts International Airport in Monrovia just as she was about to board a flight.

Police chief Gregory Coleman has linked her directly to last months huge seizure of cocaine valued at 317 million dollars which is about 233 million pounds.

That seizure is now officially Liberias biggest drug bust ever. Police said they recovered nearly four tonnes of cocaine on July 22 from a property in Duazon about 17 miles from the capital.

Photos released by police showed dozens of sealed suitcases and boxes packed inside a lorry. Forensic tests confirmed it was high grade cocaine. Authorities later burned 4.2 metric tonnes with an estimated street value of around 336 million dollars.

So far Howard Taylor has not made any public comment. Her lawyer told reporters he could not comment until she was formally charged in court.

If you follow Liberian politics you will know the name carries a lot of history. Howard Taylor first came to prominence as the former wife of former rebel leader Charles Taylor.

He was elected president in 1997 after the first civil war and stayed in office until 2003. He was later arrested and convicted by a UN backed court for aiding and abetting rebels in neighbouring Sierra Leone during the 1991 to 2002 civil war in which some 50,000 people died.

She built her own political career after that split.

In 2017 George Weah picked her as his running mate and she served as his deputy from 2018 until 2024, becoming the first woman to hold the vice presidency and one of the most visible women in Liberian politics.

The charges she now faces include unlicensed importation, sale and transportation of controlled drugs, illicit trafficking, criminal solicitation and criminal facilitation.

Police have also charged three foreign nationals in absentia, two Croatians and one Ukrainian, who are accused of being part of the same network.

Justice Minister Oswald Tweh said authorities would use domestic and international measures to locate and arrest them.

This is part of a wider crackdown. Liberia says it recorded two major seizures in June and July, and the investigation has now extended to senior figures inside its own security establishment, with investigators identifying officers allegedly involved in escorting the cocaine after it arrived.

The government put out a pretty firm statement saying no office is too high, no political connection is too powerful, no nationality provides immunity, and no individual is beyond the reach of the law.

Some wider context helps here. West Africa has long been what the UN Office on Drugs and Crime calls a natural stopover for cocaine moving from South America to Europe, mostly by maritime routes but increasingly overland through the Sahel corridor.

The UN estimates about 1.25 billion dollars of cocaine transits through West Africa each year.

And the trade is growing. The UNODC World Drug Report for 2025 flagged an 85 percent rise in cocaine seizures and transshipment in emerging markets in Africa and Asia, with signs of increased local use in West and Central Africa as well.

Analysts say traffickers exploit porous borders and weak enforcement, which is why Liberia is now trying to show it can act decisively.

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