Published: July 9, 2026
MONROVIA — Security forces have not arrested a single suspect in the US$19.2 million cocaine case at Roberts International Airport, Sens. Edwin Melvin Snowe Jr. and Amara M. Konneh said Sunday. The only man before the court flew home and turned himself in.
In a joint statement, the Bomi and Gbarpolu county lawmakers welcomed the charges brought against five men in the June seizure of roughly 237.6 kilograms of cocaine at the airport, then questioned how four of them slipped beyond the reach of the state.
“How is it possible that a cocaine shipment valued at US$19.2 million could be intercepted without a single suspect being apprehended by our security forces before leaving the country?” the senators asked.
Police last week charged Michael U.S. Browne, also known as Rahim or Raheem Bah, Paul J. King, Oscar Browne, Emmanuel Kpah and Usman Ali under Liberia’s drug and penal laws. King, who was in the United States when the shipment moved through the airport, returned to Liberia, surrendered to authorities on arrival at Roberts International and was sent to court Monday. He is the only defendant in custody.
The senators drew a sharp line through the government’s own account of who was where. Oscar Browne and King were outside Liberia when the investigation opened, they said, while Michael U.S. Browne and Kpah were in the country during its early stages. Authorities told the public that naming persons of interest would compromise the investigation, and gave the impression they had the situation under control.
“If this was accurate, it raises an obvious question: how were these suspects able to evade arrest?” the statement said.
The senators said Liberians deserve to know whether the men were under surveillance, whether operational failures allowed them to escape, or whether other circumstances explain their departure from the country’s jurisdiction. They also noted that the officer in charge of the Liberia Drug Enforcement Agency publicly told the nation that persons of interest were in custody, a claim the arrest record does not appear to support.
“Are we truly serious about enforcing the law and expecting the international community to take Liberia seriously in the fight against organized crime?” they asked.
Snowe and Konneh commended the LDEA, the Liberia National Police and the joint security agencies for intercepting the consignment, and credited Inspector General of Police Gregory O.W. Coleman for bringing the charges. But they said the investigation cannot end with the men accused of attempting to export the drugs.
The senators pressed for answers on who financed the importation, how the cocaine entered Liberia by air, sea or land, where it was stored, concealed or repackaged before reaching the airport, who coordinated the logistics, which financial institutions or entities were used to launder the proceeds, who the additional local and international collaborators are, and whether any public officials or state security personnel were involved.
They singled out two people named in the police account of the seizure who face no charges. Emmanuel Zeon, identified in the charge sheet as having transported the shipment to the airport, and Ruth Gbapaywhea, the airport screener whose X-ray examination flagged the suspicious images, were both exonerated by the investigation, the senators said, and they want to know how.
The seizure exposed serious concerns about the rule of law, border security and public safety, the statement said, and represents a grave threat to national security.
Snowe and Konneh called for an independent investigation carried out with the full cooperation and technical support of Liberia’s international partners, one that reaches financiers, importers, traffickers, facilitators and any public official who may have aided the enterprise.
“The Liberian people deserve nothing less than the full truth, complete accountability, and justice,” the senators said. “We demand an answer!”
The two lawmakers forced a special Senate session on the case July 1, when Senate Pro Tempore Nyonblee Karnga-Lawrence ordered the Judiciary Committee to investigate how Michael U.S. Browne walked out of the Kakata Central Prison in 2024 after being indicted on a non-bailable first-degree drug felony. Browne was charged in absentia last week.
Under Liberian law, criminal charges are allegations by the prosecution. All five men remain presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in a court of competent jurisdiction.
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