Published: November 3, 2026
MONROVIA — Liberia’s security agencies will act jointly on intelligence shared through the regional customs network and shift from counting seizures to pursuing the people and money behind trafficking networks, a senior government official told customs intelligence officers from West and Central Africa on Monday as Liberia hosted their annual meeting for the first time.
Prince Mulbah, deputy director general of the Liberia Drug Enforcement Agency, made the pledge on behalf of the Joint Security at the opening of the 17th annual joint meeting of the national correspondents of the World Customs Organization’s Regional Intelligence Liaison Offices for West and Central Africa, which runs through Friday at the Farmington Hotel in Margibi County.
“We are moving away from counting, only counting seizures,” Mulbah said. “Our focus is now on intelligence-led investigations that target the masterminds, the money, and the logistics.”
Mulbah said the region now faces a convergence of transnational organized crime, including illicit drugs such as kush and tramadol “that are destroying our youths,” illicit financial flows, arms and ammunition smuggling, counterfeit pharmaceuticals and environmental crime.
“The criminals are networked. Therefore, we the law enforcement family must also be networked,” he said.
He said the Joint Security, which he listed as including the Liberia National Police, the Liberia Immigration Service, the Liberia Drug Enforcement Agency, the Armed Forces of Liberia, the National Security Agency, Liberia Customs and the Presidential Task Force on Illicit Mining, would ensure intelligence received through the network is acted on jointly rather than held by a single agency. He asked delegates to be candid about the region’s weaknesses, naming “porous borders, limited forensic labs, delayed information sharing, and corruption.”
Commissioner of Customs Saa Saamoi of the Liberia Revenue Authority, which is hosting the meeting, said it marked a first for the country.
“This is the first time that Liberia Customs has had the opportunity of hosting this important regional meeting,” Saamoi said.
Saamoi said criminal networks exploit gaps in intelligence sharing and differences in regulatory frameworks across the region, using methods including cargo misdescription, undervaluation, origin fraud, document falsification, concealment of prohibited goods and diversion of goods moving under customs transit. He told delegates the network should be judged by enforcement results rather than the number of meetings held or reports produced.
“Intelligence collected but not analyzed has limited value,” he said.
The gaps in regional cooperation were laid out bluntly in the address of the WCO’s vice chair for West and Central Africa, read in French by Abrahim Njoija. The address said only 17 of the region’s 24 customs administrations took part in a recent regional enforcement operation and urged every administration to join such operations more broadly and regularly. It called on the meeting to produce specific recommendations with assigned responsibilities and a follow-up mechanism rather than serve as a routine institutional gathering.
Amado Tejan, director of the Regional Intelligence Liaison Office for West Africa, said delegates would review how far recommendations adopted at last year’s meeting in Bamako, Mali, have been implemented and would work on the quality and regularity of data shared through the WCO’s enforcement platforms. He said delegates from the Democratic Republic of Congo were unable to travel because of health restrictions and would follow the proceedings online.
In a virtual address on behalf of the WCO secretary general, which was cut short by technical problems, a representative said national contact points would be central to an operation scheduled for early 2027 and pointed to a new platform for sharing enforcement information on e-commerce and small consignments.
The meeting is being held under the theme “Intelligence and regional cooperation in the service of a vigilant and committed Customs administration for the protection of society.” The Liberia Revenue Authority is livestreaming the proceedings on its Facebook page, and the opening was carried live by the Liberia Broadcasting System.
Discussion about this post