{"id":34579,"date":"2023-04-11T16:17:58","date_gmt":"2023-04-11T16:17:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/all-news\/liberia-ministry-of-justice-prematurely-ends-testimony-in-cocaine-smuggling-case"},"modified":"2023-04-11T16:30:33","modified_gmt":"2023-04-11T16:30:33","slug":"liberia-ministry-of-justice-prematurely-ends-testimony-in-cocaine-smuggling-case","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/all-news\/liberia-ministry-of-justice-prematurely-ends-testimony-in-cocaine-smuggling-case","title":{"rendered":"Liberia: Ministry of Justice \u2018Prematurely\u2019 Ends Testimony in Cocaine Smuggling Case"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Liberia. <\/strong><\/span>The Ministry of Justice has hastily ended its presentation of evidence in the US$100 million cocaine smuggling case after failing to secure the testimonies of three out of its eight witnesses.<\/p>\n

The unexpected turn of events comes months after the Ministry earlier boasted of having in its possession indisputable evidence to convict the four individuals accused of importing the largest quantity of drugs in the history of the country.<\/p>\n

The latest development, however, has thrown such claims into serious doubt since the testimonies of all eight witnesses were considered crucial to the case, along with other physical evidence<\/p>\n

The situation now leaves the accused lawyers to claim the prosecution team, to argue that the prosecution team, which bears the burden of proving the defendant\u2019s guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, has a weaker case for conviction.<\/p>\n

They can point to inconsistencies in the testimonies of the last five witnesses presented to the jury, who ultimately holds the power to decide the fate of the accused.<\/p>\n

Legal experts suggest that the abrupt end to the presentation of prosecution evidence due to the unavailability of key witnesses has given the defense lawyers an advantage in the case.<\/p>\n

The defense team, the experts believe, would likely argue that the prosecution\u2019s failure to produce their additional witnesses despite requesting extensions on multiple occasions implies a lack of sufficient evidence to prove their case beyond a reasonable doubt.<\/p>\n

The US$100 million cocaine case, which features the discovery of a large quantity of cocaine in September 2022 with a street value of US$100 million \u2014 the highest value drug bust in the country\u2019s history \u2014 has garnered significant attention across the nation and beyond, but has suffered significant delay as a result of the struggle by the Ministry of Justice to make available its eight witness for the case.<\/p>\n

Of the eight witnesses, only five appeared in court, including the chief investigator of the Liberia Drugs Enforcement Agency (LDEA), who headed the panel that charged the defendants in 2022. There were however some notable inconsistencies in the five witnesses\u2019 testimonies but their impact on the case is yet unclear.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the defense lawyers are expected on April 13, to present their own evidence and arguments which would refute the prosecution\u2019s case that the accused \u2014 Makki Ahmed Issam, Adulai Djalo, Oliver Zayzay and Malam Conte \u2014 did not commit the crime as alleged by the prosecutors.<\/p>\n

Issam and co-accused are being prosecuted on charges of \u201cmoney laundering, unlicensed possession of controlled drugs, unlicensed importation of controlled drugs and criminal conspiracy.<\/p>\n

Their case grew from the government’s seizure of US$100 million worth of cocaine in 2022, during which time, a Liberian named Oliver Zayzay, and some of his foreign associates were arrested after seeking to purchase what appeared to be a shipping container full of fresh frozen pig feet from a refrigerated storage facility in Monrovia.<\/p>\n

The defendants had initially offered to pay the owners of the container, AJA Group Holdings, the sum of US$200,000 for the entire container which, at the time, cost less than US$30,000.<\/p>\n

But when the defendants, within less than eight hours, doubled their offer to US$400,000 and, finally, to US$1 million, AJA Group said they were certain that Zayzay and his associates were dealing with a serious case of narcotics trafficking.<\/p>\n

The company said they contacted the United States Ambassador, a move that brought both the American and Liberian anti-narcotics law enforcement agents into the picture and caught the suspects red-handed.<\/p>\n

The US$100 million cocaine bust is believed to be the biggest arrest in terms of street value on the African continent so far.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Liberia<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Liberia. The Ministry of Justice has hastily ended its presentation of evidence in the US$100 million cocaine smuggling case after failing to secure the testimonies of three out of its eight witnesses. The unexpected turn of events comes months after the Ministry earlier boasted of having in its possession indisputable evidence to convict […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":34577,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,12],"tags":[233,237,234],"class_list":["post-34579","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-policy","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-liberia","tag-liberia"],"yoast_head":"\nLiberia: Ministry of Justice \u2018Prematurely\u2019 Ends Testimony in Cocaine Smuggling Case - Liberia<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Ministry of Justice has hastily ended its presentation of evidence in the US$100 million cocaine smuggling case afte ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/all-news\/liberia-ministry-of-justice-prematurely-ends-testimony-in-cocaine-smuggling-case\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Liberia: Ministry of Justice \u2018Prematurely\u2019 Ends Testimony in Cocaine Smuggling Case\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Ministry of Justice has hastily ended its presentation of evidence in the US$100 million cocaine smuggling case afte ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/all-news\/liberia-ministry-of-justice-prematurely-ends-testimony-in-cocaine-smuggling-case\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Liberia\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-04-11T16:17:58+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-04-11T16:30:33+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/liberia\/sites\/37\/2023\/04\/postQueueImg_1681213681.95.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"630\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/all-news\/liberia-ministry-of-justice-prematurely-ends-testimony-in-cocaine-smuggling-case#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/all-news\/liberia-ministry-of-justice-prematurely-ends-testimony-in-cocaine-smuggling-case\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Liberia: Ministry of Justice \u2018Prematurely\u2019 Ends Testimony in Cocaine Smuggling Case\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-04-11T16:17:58+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-04-11T16:30:33+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/all-news\/liberia-ministry-of-justice-prematurely-ends-testimony-in-cocaine-smuggling-case\"},\"wordCount\":621,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/all-news\/liberia-ministry-of-justice-prematurely-ends-testimony-in-cocaine-smuggling-case#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/liberia\/sites\/37\/2023\/04\/postQueueImg_1681213681.95.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Liberia\",\"Liberia\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"policy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/all-news\/liberia-ministry-of-justice-prematurely-ends-testimony-in-cocaine-smuggling-case#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/all-news\/liberia-ministry-of-justice-prematurely-ends-testimony-in-cocaine-smuggling-case\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/all-news\/liberia-ministry-of-justice-prematurely-ends-testimony-in-cocaine-smuggling-case\",\"name\":\"Liberia: Ministry of Justice \u2018Prematurely\u2019 Ends Testimony in Cocaine Smuggling Case - 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