20100608
Analyst

If we follow our sixth sense, the full establishment of the rule of law and the attainment of functional judicial reform are two drawback factors that stand standing between Liberia and full international security confidence.

t has been preventing candidate Liberia from being affirmed the proposed the headquarters of the US Africa Military High Command. By extension, it is preventing robust international cooperation for the rapid creation and deployment of a Liberian military and paramilitary force trusted to take over from UNMIL at a moment's notice.

Now, it seems that picture is changing and that trust is evolving as indicated by a recent joint US-Liberia legal and security operation, which nabbed eight illicit drug traffickers with ties to four continents. The Analyst has been finding out just what that joint operation forebodes.

The government of Liberia, between May 28 and 30, 2010, extradited five alleged global cocaine traffickers to the US to face illicit drug charges in what is duped US-Liberia Joint "Operation Relentless".

The Indictees

Two others currently in Liberian jails are due to follow shortly as US officials work with the Government of Spain to decide the fate of the eighth suspect currently in Spanish custody.

The five and the other co-defendants, who were arrested on charges of conspiring to use Liberia as staging area for distribution of more than $100 million worth of cocaine, face from 10 years to a maximum of life imprisonment, when convicted.

None of the five or the pending two was a Liberian national, according to two indictments unsealed last Tuesday in New York City, USA, by Preet Bharara, who is the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York and Michele M. Leonhart, the Acting Administrator of the United States Drug Enforcement Administration ("DEA").

Those reportedly extradited to the US were Nigerian Chigbo Peter Umeh otherwise known as "Emeka Okonkwo", "Chigbogu Umehwunne", "Mike", "Chibue", or "El Negro"; Ukrainian Konstantin Yaroshenko; and Ghanaian Gilbrilla Kamara also known as "Gibril Kamara", "Anthony Smith", "GK" , "Gibry", "Gee Wee" or "River Stallon".

Others were Sierra Leoneans Ali Sesay known in the drug world as "Aliue Sesay" or "Alie Sesay", and Gennor Jalloh, known also as "Chernoh Nuhu Jalloh".

The five arrived in the Southern District of New York from Liberia on May 30, 2010, to face charges of conspiring to import cocaine into the United States.

The US indictment said the five, who were arrested in coordination with Liberian authorities and transferred to the custody of the United States would be tried in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York.

The indictments did not say when the two additional defendants – Nathaniel French otherwise known as "The Frenchman", or "The Expert", and Kudufia Mawuko, known also as "Marco", who the Liberian authorities arrested last Tuesday will be transferred to United States custody.

It also fell short of saying whether another defendant – Jorge Ivan Salazar Castano, known as "El Chavel" – who was previously arrested in Spain, would be turned over to the US government to face drug charges.

What is also not clear is the fate of another defendant, Marcel Acevedo Sarmiento known also as "Jota", "JJ", or "Juan Restrepo", who a complaint listed as a co-conspirator of the conspiracy bur who remained at large up to the unsealing of the indictments in New York last week.

Traffickers, Uncover Agents – How it all went

According to the indictment, UMEH, 42, who is from Nigeria, was a broker who assisted various international narcotics suppliers in shipping numerous tons of cocaine from South America to West Africa, from where the cocaine was transported to Europe or elsewhere within Africa.

Another indictee, Salazar Castano, 44, who is from Colombia, it said, was a cocaine supplier based in Colombia and Spain, who, together with his co-conspirators, sent large commercial aircraft containing cocaine from South America to West Africa, as well as smaller, private airplanes that departed from clandestine airstrips in Venezuela.

Indictee Yaroshenko, 41, who is from Russia, the indictment revealed, was an aircraft pilot and aviation transport expert who transported thousand-kilogram quantities of cocaine throughout South America, Africa, and Europe.

French, 51, who is from Ghana, it said, assisted drug suppliers by providing logistical support and coordination for maritime shipments of cocaine across the Atlantic Ocean while Mawuko, 57, also from Ghana, assisted the drug suppliers through his extensive knowledge of maritime navigation, including the development of sea routes that could evade law enforcement radar.

"The defendants participated in a series of face-to-face meetings, phone conversations, and telephone calls with the cooperating Liberian officials and [an agent of DEA known as] CS in connection with at least three different shipments of cocaine that they were trying to transport through Liberia," the indictment charged.

It said the defendants had arranged a three-shipload transaction through a series of meetings with Liberian government officials, none of which they delivered due to the diligence of the Liberian security forces.

The first of the three, it said, was of approximately 4,000 kilograms, which was to be flown from Venezuela to Monrovia, Liberia, and the retail value of which was over $100 million.

The second arrangement, it said, was for the shipment of approximately 1,500 kilograms, which was to be flown from Venezuela to Monrovia, Liberia, on an aircraft originating in Panama, and a third shipment of approximately 500 kilograms of cocaine, which was to be transported by a ship from Venezuela to a location off the coast of Liberia.

"Through these meetings, the defendants all understood that once the cocaine was transported to Liberia, a portion of the shipment (representing the payment to the CS) would be transported into Ghana, from where it would be placed on a commercial flight destined for the United States," the indictment said.

It said the defendants had tried for three years since 2007 to bribe high-level officials in the Liberian Government in order to protect shipments of vast quantities of cocaine, and to use Liberia as a trans-shipment point for further distribution of the cocaine in Africa and Europe.

"In particular, certain of the defendants met with two individuals they knew to be Liberian government officials -- the Director and Deputy Director of the Republic of Liberia National Security Agency ("RLNSA"), both of whom (unbeknownst to the defendants) in fact were working jointly with the DEA in an undercover capacity ("UC-1" and "UC-2", respectively).

The Director of the RLNSA is also the son of the current President of Liberia," the indictment revealed.

The indictment said last week's transfer of the five from Liberian and the pending transfer of two other indictees marked the first defendant transfer by the Government of Liberia to the United States in connection with narcotics related charges in more than 30 years.

U.S. legal and Department of Enforcement Administration (DEA) authorities in New York did not say how long the joint "Operation Relentless" has been in force, but they described the arrest and extradition of the suspects from Liberia as an "historic" part of a larger global anti-illicit drug trafficking network.

The indictment said the cocaine trade conspiracy, worth billions of dollars, has been active in Guinea Bissau, Guinea Conakry, Sierra Leone, Togo, Mali, Ghana, Nigeria, and before coming to Liberia in recent years.

It said the US DEA Office's Terrorism and International Narcotics Unit therefore designed the network to prevent the use of developing countries in West Africa and elsewhere as springboards for the shipment of drugs to the U.S. and other European countries or to dislodge already established springboards in these countries.

The arrests and transfers of the defendants, the indictment said, were the result of the close cooperative efforts of the United States Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York, the Special Operations Division of the DEA, and the DEA Lagos Country Office.