Published: August 5, 2026
MONROVIA – The Private Bar, a local bar in Paynesville, has been pulled directly into Liberia’s cocaine investigation, with its owner charged with nine crimes, including drug trafficking, economic sabotage, and money laundering.
Information Minister Jerolinmek Piah announced the charges on Tuesday at the ministry’s regular press conference, naming the owner of the entertainment center as George Harris. He said more people were expected to be charged later.
The charges include unlicensed possession, importation, trafficking, trading, distribution, and sales of illicit drugs or substances, along with economic sabotage, money laundering, criminal conspiracy, criminal facilitation, and criminal solicitation.
Piah said the case against Harris involves an investigation that is not limited to any single seizure. “We’ve always said the scope of the investigation is deep,” he said. Investigators are pursuing what he described as an entrenched drug-related operation that has been running in Liberia since 2018. He added that more people will be brought in for questioning as the security investigation uncovers links and as charges are filed where the facts support them.
The venue has already been mentioned in reports about the case. The media reported in July 16 that Usman Ali, a consignee based in the United Kingdom and charged in the airport cocaine case, attended a birthday party on May 17 at the Private Bar in Paynesville, across from the community school. The party was held for Leroy Harris and Michael Browne, both of whom were identified as suspects. Four days later, the outlet noted that Leroy Harris had been arrested and briefly questioned but remained free, and that the venue had become a regular meeting spot for drug-related cases.
The charges against the bar’s owner are part of an ongoing investigation that started in early June and has already expanded to include the airport, police, and the National Security Agency. It began with the June 8 seizure of 237.6 kilograms of cocaine, valued at approximately US$19.2 million, at Roberts International Airport, described as one of the largest interdictions in the country’s history, after which President Joseph Boakai formed a Joint National Security Investigative Task Force to track the network behind the shipment. The Liberia National Police announced charges nearly a month later against five individuals and one logistics company over cargo investigators say was falsely declared as Maggi seasoning cubes and lappas, with Inspector General Gregory Coleman dismissing the idea that the shipment was a paperwork mistake and instead calling it a transnational trafficking operation using Liberia’s aviation and logistics system.
A second and much larger seizure occurred on July 21, when officers raided a house in Paynesville’s VOA Community and discovered 3,971 plates of cocaine valued at an estimated US$317.68 million, along with GPS trackers, Starlink satellite equipment, diving suits, a drone, and firearms. A charge sheet filed at the Paynesville City Magistrate Court before Stipendiary Magistrate William G. Saygah names twelve defendants in that case, on charges that closely match those read against Harris, and indicates that others are still to be identified.
The drugs from both seizures were burned on July 30 at the LMHRA waste disposal site in Mambah-Kaba District under a court order, with samples retained for trial. The Ministry of Justice also disclosed that the state intends to prosecute 17 people in total, twelve from the July seizure and five from the airport case. The same day, the ministry stated that investigators are examining individuals who held presidential appointments between 2019 and 2023, and that the trafficking operation was sanctioned by senior state actors, a claim that aligns with the 2018 starting point that Piah mentioned Tuesday. President Boakai dismissed a dozen officials in late July, including airport operations staff and senior law enforcement supervisors, and referred others for investigation.
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