As Liberians continue to push for equal justice in the ongoing investigation and prosecution of alleged drug traffickers, Montserrado County Senator Abraham Darius Dillon has added his voice to the many voices calling for the prosecution of some government officials involved in the US$19 million worth of drugs and the US$317.68 million worth of drugs seized in Liberia in June and July respectively.
For the sake of equal justice, Senator Dillon has given the Inspector General of Police until the end of this week to dismiss and prosecute the Deputy Commissioner for Crime Services at the Liberia National Police over a bribe the IGP himself said the officer confessed to taking, warning that failure to act leaves his own credibility in question.
The officer, identified as Johnny Dean, is accused of accepting US$10,000 from someone connected to the cocaine trafficking network under investigation, in exchange for easing conditions for suspects in custody. The disclosure came from Inspector General Col. Gregory Coleman on July 23.
Nearly two months later, Dean has not been charged and is under internal review by the police professional standards unit.
“The fact that it is not somebody else who alleged it, it is not somebody else, the police director says, somebody told him that Johnny received US$10,000. The police director says Johnny confessed to him (IG Coleman). You don’t need no more evidence,” Dillon said on the OK Conversation on OK FM 99.5 on Tuesday.
He furthered, “Johnny Dean is a subject fit for dismissal from the police. If Gregory does not do that, if he doesn’t take that action even before the close of this week, then Gregory has an issue with trust and confidence.”
The Montserrado County lawmaker who describes himself as a member of the government and who spent 11 years at the Ministry of Justice as special assistant to a former solicitor general, said the delay is feeding the accusation that the narcotics investigation is being applied selectively.
“Johnny should be disrobed, dismissed from the Liberia National Police, and he should be prosecuted for bribery. When you do that, you’re telling the people that no sacred cow, whether you are small or big,” he added.
Senator Dillon furthered, “If you don’t do it now, then you give rise to the suspicion that this fight is selective.” Sen. Dillon contrasted the inaction with the speed shown elsewhere. When activist Martin Kollie made allegations against the head of the Liberia Drug Enforcement Agency, President Joseph Nyuma Boakai gave the Ministry of Justice and the joint security 48 hours to investigate and report back.
The lawmaker said the investigation did not substantiate Kollie’s claim but found what he called indiscretion, or ethical issues, on the part of the LDEA head. The president acted within the 48 hours, he said. In Johnny Dean’s case, no presidential instruction is needed, because the officer falls under the Inspector General of Police’s own authority.
The senator extended the complaint to a list of people removed from office or held in custody in connection with the drug investigation, and about whom he said the government has told the public nothing since.
He named former Deputy National Security Agency Director Patrick Doe, dismissed over the case, and a dismissed deputy at Roberts International Airport Mark Kuiah. He also asked when the foreign nationals arrested in the case and now held as pretrial detainees at the Monrovia Central Prison will be brought to court.
“We as the government, through the joint security, owe it to the public and all of us to give an update on where the people are with this investigation. Just as we have all the cameras on Jewel and other people, put the camera on the people too so the country can know that the fight is balanced and being fought without politics,” he said.
On the arrest of former Vice President Jewel Howard-Taylor, Dillon disclosed a personal connection before answering. Howard-Taylor hired him as her chief of staff when she was senator of Bong County, he said, and he considers her family.
He said he received a missed call from her on the morning of her arrest, followed by a call from security authorities informing him of the action, and that he did not return her call because he did not want to appear to interfere.
He said the arrest itself was lawful but badly handled. Howard-Taylor, like other former presidents and vice presidents, is assigned Executive Protection Service officers, meaning her movements are known to the state.
“I would have done the arrest of Jewel or anybody in at her category or even lower than that differently. They could have simply told the EPS people to hold her down at the house. That’s my view,” Senator Dillon said.
The Senator however, declined to say whether the prosecution is political. “The evidence will determine whether the fight against drugs was made political by us, the government, or whether we, the government, will prove that we want to prosecute a crime and not a political prosecution. Nobody is above the law,” he intimated.
On the fight against drug, Senator Dillon maintained that the government is winning the wider drug fight, putting the decline in street drug use over the past two years at more than 90% and saying the government is succeeding “98%.
He argued that seizures of cocaine, which he said is trafficked through Liberia rather than sold into the local market, are being conflicted with the campaign against locally consumed drugs, and that ghettos and open selling have largely disappeared.
Meanwhile, there are growing questions over why dismissed Police Commissioner Johnny Bolar Dean (Unit 106) and former RIA Deputy Managing Director for Operations Mark Egon Kuiah remain out of jail amid Liberia’s controversial US$336 million cocaine investigation.
Following the arrest of some foreign nationals in connection with the US$317.68 million worth of cocaine, Dean reportedly admitted receiving US$10,000 from an alleged drug network in exchange for “special treatment,” while Kuiah has been identified as a leading suspect in the ongoing investigation.
Both men were dismissed by President Joseph Nyumah Boakai on July 31, 2026, following the investigation.
Adding to the controversy, Kuiah reportedly wrote a letter on July 13, 2026, seeking authorization for the vessel IB Atlantic IV Maroni, allegedly linked to the suspected drug shipment, to berth in Liberia’s territorial waters and Exclusive Economic Zone.
Yet, while others linked to the drug scandal have reportedly been detained, Dean and Kuiah are still moving freely around Monrovia. Since the dismissals, nothing tangible has been heard from state authorities on the fate of both men allegedly connected to the drug bust.
Many Liberians, mostly the opposition community continue to raise concern over the fate of Mr. Dean and Kuiah. According to them, Dean and Kuiah remain free men while former Vice President Jewel Howard Taylor is languishing behind bars. The opposition term the action on the part of the state as selective justice warning about the danger of government’s action in the ongoing fight against drugs.
So, the baffling question Liberians are asking: Is this selective justice, or is there another explanation? Many Liberians say if there is sufficient evidence against anyone, shouldn’t the law apply equally to everyone?
Recently, Liberia’s former Vice President Jewel Howard-Taylor was arrested and sent to jail on allegation of drug trafficking. The former Vice President is presently remanded at the Monrovia Central Prison pending her appearance at the Monrovia City Court on Wednesday September 2, 2024.
