Africa-Press – Liberia. The Joint Security in Nimba has confiscated a huge quantity of pharmaceutical drugs that were being smuggled to neighboring Ivory Coast.
The drugs were seized on Sunday, May 28, at a checkpoint along the Sanniquellie-Loguatuo Highway in Nimba County.
The medical drugs, which contained about 26 cartons, were sealed up in black plastic bags, well taped, and boarded on a vehicle that carries no license plate. However, the operator of the vehicle was said to have broken down when the security officer ordered the driver to take the goods to Sanniquellie for investigation.
The medical drugs were then offloaded from the spoiled vehicle and taken to Sanniquellie onboard another vehicle, where all the cartons were taken from the sealed plastic bags for inspection.
The man who claimed to be the owner, Mohammed Kamara, a resident of Jacob Town, Monrovia, told the Daily Observer that he was shipping these pharmaceutical drugs to Danané, Cote d’Ivoire, for sale.
He put the cost of the drugs at about US$1,140, but the agents from the Liberia Pharmaceutical Board and the Ministry of Health disputed the amount, saying the value should be much higher than what Kamara stated.
The health authority ruled out that drugs were of International Dispensary Association, as was speculated by some security officers, but they said the drugs were all good and active for use in a pharmacy or clinic.
The types of Pharmaceutical drugs arrested include, several varieties of pain tablets, anti-malaria tablets (malluart), vitamin tablets of various kinds (fast appetite, real appetite, etc), gentamicin ear/eye drops, and others that have the following inscriptions on the boxes as follows; Piroxocam, Havax and Lomezole.
There were also cartons of suspension/syrups and injection amperes, among other drugs.
The arrest of the medical drugs shocked the county, with many wondering whether there were any big hands or medical centers behind the smuggling of such a huge amount of drugs from a country that faces a shortage of medical drugs.
“The security needs to interrogate well so as to know the real mastermind of the smuggling,” one Mary Gwen said.
“When you go to the clinic, they give you a white paper to get your own drug from outside, and, sometimes, you don’t even find any of these drugs at all,” she said.
One of the officers, who did not want to be named, wondered “why the man couldn’t sell these drugs in Liberia.”
However, the head of the investigation, Liberia Drug Enforcement Agency (LDEA) County Commander Thomas Saye, told the Daily Observer that the investigation was still ongoing; however, the Joint Security concluded that the medical authorities investigating alongside them should take delivery of drugs for safekeeping until the investigation is concluded.
However, the Daily Observer is yet to confirm whether the Ministry of Health, Nimba, or Pharmaceutical Board, whose agents were working alongside the Joint Security, have taken delivery of the drugs.
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