{"id":35705,"date":"2023-05-02T16:11:21","date_gmt":"2023-05-02T16:11:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/all-news\/liberia-defense-witness-exposes-govt"},"modified":"2023-05-02T16:45:28","modified_gmt":"2023-05-02T16:45:28","slug":"liberia-defense-witness-exposes-govt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/all-news\/liberia-defense-witness-exposes-govt","title":{"rendered":"Liberia: Defense Witness Exposes Gov\u2019t"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Liberia. <\/strong><\/span>The Managing Editor of the New Dawn Newspaper, Othello Garblah, has disclosed that the government ignored warning from Global Maritime Tracking Solution (GMTS) to track the shipment of TRH Trading, the the company that is accused of importing a consignment of cocaine worth US$100 million into the country.<\/p>\n

The journalist and newspaper publisher took the witness stand in the trial of the US$100 million cocaine smuggling case over the weekend, telling Criminal Court \u2018C\u2019 that there were visible signs to have TRH tracked due to its association with multiple cocaine cases.<\/p>\n

As one of the defense witnesses, Garblah told the court and jury that he personally wrote a story after he had noticed that TRH Trading name is associated with almost every cocaine arrest.<\/p>\n

Witness Gablah said on September 22, 2022 he wrote that Global Maritime Tracking Solution (GMTS) issued a warning and it was stated clearly that this particular consignment shipped by TRH Trading should be subjected to physical inspection.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur argument in that editorial was that, if such a warning was given as is being done on the shipment of concern, why wasn\u2019t such an observation or instruction complied with by the relevant authority?\u201d Gablah asked. “Therefore, we, as journalists, [these are the] questions through this editorial, hoping that our government would clear our doubts.\u201d<\/p>\n

He continued, \u201cIn any civilized jurisdiction, TRH Trading\/AHA would be treated as prime suspects and accomplices, but our government will have you believe that they are the victims.\u201d<\/p>\n

The editorial \u201cWhy Only TRH\u2019s Container Has Been Used by Drug Traffickers\u201d, was published on February 13, 2023, in the wake of the arrest and investigation of the cocaine in a pig feet container at the premises of the TRH Trading.<\/p>\n

For the defendants\u2019 team to prevail in this trial, their lawyers need to prove to the jury that TRH Trading and the government acted with \u201cactual conspiracy\u201d by ignoring GMTS\u2019s warning to inspect the container before having it cleared from the Free Port of Monrovia.<\/p>\n

In the ongoing trial, TRH Trading is reportedly the whistleblower, while four other individuals are being tried in connection to the alleged shipment of cocaine through the company from Brazil to Liberia. They are being tried on multiple offenses,including the imposition of illegal drugs and criminal conspiracy.<\/p>\n

Quizzed by a defense lawyer, Richard Scott, to explain about the author of said editorial, witness Garblah replied: \u201cI am the author of the article because any reasonable person would understand that such practice put TRH Trading\/AHA right in the middle of these drug busts.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gablah\u2019s editorial states that the repeated discovery of cocaine in the TRH Trading\/AHA Group consignee\u2019s container, and describing the owner as a \u201cwhistleblower\u201d seem to beg more questions than answers.<\/p>\n

Again, asked about his intentions for the editorial, Gablah said, \u201cthe author\u2019s intent of the particular editorial in question was to draw the government\u2019s attention to what it believed may have been some overstep in the process of the investigation. In that clearing, an entity or an individual who may have been found with such a dangerous substance and is also operating under a special post clearance module, he or she could have been used by criminals to have imported the same knowingly or unknowingly, so the intent was to allow the government to ask TRH more questions.\u201d<\/p>\n

Under cross examination, the prosecution asked if the editorial was based on the source\u2019s account, Garblah answered: \u201cYou should first understand the very title of the column you are referring to and I will answer this way. Last year, I was caught with drugs in my suitcase, and argued that l didn\u2019t know about it. And, therefore l reported to the police and in February this year the some months after, another drug is found in my suitcase.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe question of that column is, \u2018why [is] only TRH always having drugs\u2019, and therefore asked the government to ask TRH more questions. Reporting a thing does not exonerate you will want me to say.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to the defense witness, whenever a contraband constance or any substance that are illegal is found or are found in the person suitcase or whatever belonging that person should be treated as a suspect.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor us, the tiding between when TRH was considered a whistleblower\/victim while substances are still being rounded up, we believed in our minds under prudent jurisdiction that they would be held as suspects, pending investigation or disposal of the matter. But to have been cleared and turned victim, we had more questions than answers,\u201d Garblah said.<\/p>\n

He recounted the fact that warning by GMTS that tracked shipments across the world that the container with the US$100 million worth of cocaine be subjected to physical inspection was ignored, \u201csays a lot about the depth of complacency authorities in the country display.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy did government ignore the warning from GMTS to subject the container that was allegedly carrying US$100 million cocaine?\u201d Gablah put the question back to the prosecution.<\/p>\n

The journalist believes that in any given situation, criminals will exploit any weak system \u2014 in this case, Liberia Revenue Authority ( LRA) has admitted that TRH had been given certain privileges, allowing them to clear their goods\/ consignment of containers under such arrangement which is using mere invoices or bill of lading. Therefore, any criminal knowing such system could exploit same.<\/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 Managing Editor of the New Dawn Newspaper, Othello Garblah, has disclosed that the government ignored warning from Global Maritime Tracking Solution (GMTS) to track the shipment of TRH Trading, the the company that is accused of importing a consignment of cocaine worth US$100 million into the country. The journalist and newspaper […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":35703,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,12],"tags":[233,237,234],"class_list":["post-35705","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: Defense Witness Exposes Gov\u2019t - Liberia<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Managing Editor of the New Dawn Newspaper, Othello Garblah, has disclosed that the government ignored warning from G ...\" \/>\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-defense-witness-exposes-govt\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Liberia: Defense Witness Exposes Gov\u2019t\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Managing Editor of the New Dawn Newspaper, Othello Garblah, has disclosed that the government ignored warning from G ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/all-news\/liberia-defense-witness-exposes-govt\" \/>\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=\"2023-05-02T16:11:21+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-05-02T16:45:28+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/liberia\/sites\/37\/2023\/05\/postQueueImg_1683027695.16.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=\"4 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-defense-witness-exposes-govt#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/all-news\/liberia-defense-witness-exposes-govt\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Liberia: Defense Witness Exposes Gov\u2019t\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-05-02T16:11:21+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-05-02T16:45:28+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/all-news\/liberia-defense-witness-exposes-govt\"},\"wordCount\":914,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/all-news\/liberia-defense-witness-exposes-govt#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/liberia\/sites\/37\/2023\/05\/postQueueImg_1683027695.16.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-defense-witness-exposes-govt#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/all-news\/liberia-defense-witness-exposes-govt\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/all-news\/liberia-defense-witness-exposes-govt\",\"name\":\"Liberia: Defense Witness Exposes Gov\u2019t - Liberia\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/all-news\/liberia-defense-witness-exposes-govt#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/all-news\/liberia-defense-witness-exposes-govt#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/liberia\/sites\/37\/2023\/05\/postQueueImg_1683027695.16.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-05-02T16:11:21+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-05-02T16:45:28+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"description\":\"The Managing Editor of the New Dawn Newspaper, Othello Garblah, has disclosed that the government ignored warning from G ...\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/all-news\/liberia-defense-witness-exposes-govt#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/all-news\/liberia-defense-witness-exposes-govt\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/all-news\/liberia-defense-witness-exposes-govt#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/liberia\/sites\/37\/2023\/05\/postQueueImg_1683027695.16.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/liberia\/sites\/37\/2023\/05\/postQueueImg_1683027695.16.jpg\",\"width\":1200,\"height\":630,\"caption\":\"Liberia: Defense Witness Exposes Gov\u2019t\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/all-news\/liberia-defense-witness-exposes-govt#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Liberia: Defense Witness Exposes Gov\u2019t\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/\",\"name\":\"Liberia\",\"description\":\"Just another Africa News Agency Sites site\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\",\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"cfeditoren\"}}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Liberia: Defense Witness Exposes Gov\u2019t - Liberia","description":"The Managing Editor of the New Dawn Newspaper, Othello Garblah, has disclosed that the government ignored warning from G ...","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/all-news\/liberia-defense-witness-exposes-govt","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Liberia: Defense Witness Exposes Gov\u2019t","og_description":"The Managing Editor of the New Dawn Newspaper, Othello Garblah, has disclosed that the government ignored warning from G ...","og_url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/all-news\/liberia-defense-witness-exposes-govt","og_site_name":"Liberia","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa","article_published_time":"2023-05-02T16:11:21+00:00","article_modified_time":"2023-05-02T16:45:28+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":630,"url":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/liberia\/sites\/37\/2023\/05\/postQueueImg_1683027695.16.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"cfeditoren","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"cfeditoren","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/all-news\/liberia-defense-witness-exposes-govt#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/all-news\/liberia-defense-witness-exposes-govt"},"author":{"name":"cfeditoren","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb"},"headline":"Liberia: Defense Witness Exposes Gov\u2019t","datePublished":"2023-05-02T16:11:21+00:00","dateModified":"2023-05-02T16:45:28+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/all-news\/liberia-defense-witness-exposes-govt"},"wordCount":914,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/all-news\/liberia-defense-witness-exposes-govt#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/liberia\/sites\/37\/2023\/05\/postQueueImg_1683027695.16.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-defense-witness-exposes-govt#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/all-news\/liberia-defense-witness-exposes-govt","url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/all-news\/liberia-defense-witness-exposes-govt","name":"Liberia: Defense Witness Exposes Gov\u2019t - Liberia","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/all-news\/liberia-defense-witness-exposes-govt#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/all-news\/liberia-defense-witness-exposes-govt#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/liberia\/sites\/37\/2023\/05\/postQueueImg_1683027695.16.jpg","datePublished":"2023-05-02T16:11:21+00:00","dateModified":"2023-05-02T16:45:28+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb"},"description":"The Managing Editor of the New Dawn Newspaper, Othello Garblah, has disclosed that the government ignored warning from G ...","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/all-news\/liberia-defense-witness-exposes-govt#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/all-news\/liberia-defense-witness-exposes-govt"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/all-news\/liberia-defense-witness-exposes-govt#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/liberia\/sites\/37\/2023\/05\/postQueueImg_1683027695.16.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/liberia\/sites\/37\/2023\/05\/postQueueImg_1683027695.16.jpg","width":1200,"height":630,"caption":"Liberia: Defense Witness Exposes Gov\u2019t"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/all-news\/liberia-defense-witness-exposes-govt#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Liberia: Defense Witness Exposes Gov\u2019t"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/","name":"Liberia","description":"Just another Africa News Agency Sites site","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb","name":"cfeditoren","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"cfeditoren"}}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35705","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/84"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35705"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35705\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35703"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35705"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35705"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35705"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}