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ADNews-Monrovia, Liberia: From the corridors of political power to custody, former Vice President Jewel Howard-Taylor spent her first night at the Monrovia Central Prison in connection with the unpresented cocaine investigation, with numerous charges leveled against her ranging from Drug Trafficking and money laundry
The latest evidence presented by state investigators has raised questions about money received by the former vice president from individuals associated with the narcotics network.
According to the allegations reported in a newly obtained arrest warrant, Taylor received payments including US$45,000 during a trip to Dubai, US$75,000 channelled through Sheikh Bashiru Kante for the Jewel Starfish Foundation, and another US$15,000 received on a separate occasion. Together, the payments amount to US$135,000.
Once one of Liberia’s most powerful political figures, Howard-Taylor rose from being the former wife of ex- warlord turned President Charles Taylor to becoming a senator for Bong County and later serving six years as Liberia’s vice president from 2018 to 2024.
Today, however, she faces serious criminal charges with the propensity to destroy her entire political sojourn.
The Liberian Government has formally charged Howard-Taylor with drug-trafficking-related offenses, criminal solicitation, criminal facilitation, criminal conspiracy and money laundering, now in prison awaiting trial.
The charges followed an investigation by a Joint National Security Investigative Team.
Jewel was once Liberia’s First Lady during the presidency of Charles Taylor, a period associated with Liberia’s devastating civil war and regional conflict. Charles Taylor was later convicted by the Special Court for Sierra Leone for aiding and abetting serious crimes committed during the Sierra Leone conflict.
After the Taylor era, Jewel Howard-Taylor successfully entered Liberia’s democratic political system. She served as senator for Bong County for more than a decade before becoming vice president under former President George Weah.
Her rise and fall is a clear demonstration of how dramatically Liberia’s political landscape can change, as her political journey has now reached a deeply troubling chapter.
IS KARMA HUNTING BACK?
There is a Liberian expression often used when powerful people eventually face consequences for their actions: “Karma is hunting back.”
Whether this case represents karma, political accountability, or simply the ordinary operation of the law remains for history and the courts to determine.
But one lesson is already clear: political power is not permanent, and wealth cannot guarantee immunity from accountability.
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