DEA complains

Liberia’s Drugs Enforcement Agency or DEA has complained of the re-entry of impounded drugs into the communities. The DEA placed particular emphasis on drugs left lingering “somewhere” due to the lack of a fast-track court and professionalized prosecutorial team to deal with drug cases.

The Agency’s Director, Mr. Anthony Suah, cited to reporters the recent burglary and looting of the institution’s Ganta warehouse by rioters who made away with “all of the drugs” kept there. “That means that the drug is carried back into the community; this is what we want to stop- so it’s a challenge. So if these cases were fast-tracked and these people punished and the evidences are destroyed immediately, definitely we will get rid of drugs in this country,” Mr. Suah said, noting that the poor court system and prosecution were some of the challenges confronting the DEA at the moment.

He further indicated that more than 200 cases were on the docket and could not be tried and the substances still in court. “When I say the court system – you will arrest the people- sometimes the docket is fill. We got more than 200 cases now on the docket that cannot be tried and the substances are still in court – they cannot be destroyed. We don’t know what is happening and we don’t know what is going on,” Mr. Suah said.

He reechoed the need for a fast-track court and a professionalized and trained prosecutorial team for drugs, arguing that there was no need taking the drugs from the traffickers without destruction -only to have it lingered somewhere else.

He underscored the risk of having substances lingering in places, making particular reference to the recent Ganta incident against the DEA’s warehouse. He concluded with a warning that the drug laws here required tougher bail to discourage trafficking narcotic substances across the country.

By Winston W. Parley