The Political Leader of the Movement for Progressive Change (MPC), businessman Simeon Freeman, has threatened legal action against the Liberia Drug Enforcement Agency (LDEA) over what he described as an unnecessary delay in disclosing the identities of suspects linked to a major drug seizure valued at approximately US$19.3 million.
Freeman, in a Facebook post on Sunday, June 14, commended the LDEA for the large-scale interception of narcotics but raised concerns about the agency’s decision to withhold the names of individuals allegedly connected to the shipment.
He noted that the LDEA’s reasons for non-disclosure of names involved with the estimated US$50 million drug catch are to preserve the integrity of evidence. Freeman noted, “This reasoning is untenable for the following reasons: every drug consumer sources from a dealer, and every dealer sources drugs from an importer; every importer buys from a network that is obviously international.”
According to him, the information given by the LDEA indicates that disclosing the traffickers’ names could affect the integrity of the investigation.
He added, “If this is true, then the names of consumers should have been withheld for a period because consumers buy from dealers, and displaying a consumer would compel dealers to hide evidence and, by extension, make importers do the same.
He stressed that the traffickers must be immediately revealed to enable public information to support the LDEA. He added that once a bust occurs, the entire drug trafficking chain is on notice.
“In fact, it is much more dangerous to withhold information about the names of traffickers during a major drug bust from the public than to withhold information about a consumer. A consumer does not rattle the chain like a bust. The LDEA had not announced the catch to preserve the integrity of the investigation, which would be understandable. So, at this stage, the only plausible reason that the delay has been speculated in public is the theory that this burst is linked to President Joseph Boakai and his cronies.”
He stressed that if there are further delays, the Movement for Progressive Change might be compelled to request the courts to compel the LDEA, funded by public resources, to act in the public interest.
