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ADNews-Monrovia,Liberia: A detailed statement submitted by Paul J. King, General Manager of GLS-Menzies, to Liberia’s Ministry of Justice is raising new questions about the direction of the Government’s investigation into the US$19.2 million cocaine seizure at Roberts International Airport, even as official statements suggest investigators are increasingly focused on dismantling what they describe as a broader criminal network.
King’s written submission to the Ministry of Justice provides one of the most detailed accounts yet from an individual directly connected to the cargo handling process.
“My involvement was limited solely to my role as a freight broker and intermediary.” King wrote. “I did not package, load, inspect, alter, conceal, or physically handle the contents of the cargo.”
While the media has not independently verified every assertion contained in the statement, many of the claims are capable of corroboration through documentary records, CCTV footage, electronic communications, cargo logs and witness testimony already in the possession of investigators.
Among the most significant assertions is King’s claim that the shipment never completed GLS Menzies’ acceptance process because of unresolved discrepancies in its declared weight.
According to the statement, GLS personnel identified inconsistencies between the declared weight on the Air Waybill and the physical cargo presented for export. The shipment, he says, was placed on hold pending correction of those discrepancies and therefore never advanced through the company’s normal cargo acceptance procedures.
That account is consistent with internal email correspondence previously reviewed by the Daily Observer showing GLS personnel instructing airline representatives to “wait on acceptance until this is rectified” after discrepancies were discovered in the shipment’s documentation.
King further states that GLS notified the Liberia Drug Enforcement Agency after the irregularities were detected and before the cocaine was ultimately seized. If confirmed by investigators, that chronology could become central to determining precisely when authorities first became aware of the shipment and which agency first initiated the chain of events that culminated in the June 8 seizure.
The statement also introduces another figure into the investigation.
According to King, the shipment was arranged on behalf of an individual identified as Rahem Bah, whom the statement describes as the customer behind the consignment. It further alleges that Bah had previously utilized the same freight forwarding channels for earlier shipments dating back to late 2024 and urges investigators to examine those transactions as part of the broader inquiry.
The Ministry of Justice has not publicly indicated whether Bah has been located, interviewed or designated as a person of interest.
That omission has become increasingly relevant in light of Attorney General Cllr. N. Oswald Tweh, Sr.‘s June 19 statement that investigators are examining whether previous shipments involving the same actors formed part of “a broader criminal enterprise operating within and beyond Liberia’s borders.”
The Attorney General also emphasized that the Government’s objective extends beyond arrests and prosecutions to identifying and dismantling any criminal network that financed, coordinated, protected or facilitated the movement of narcotics through Liberia.
That objective appears to be reinforced by the Witness Protection Agency’s (WPA) subsequent decision to publicly encourage cooperation from individuals connected to the case.
In a statement issued June 23, the WPA offered statutory protection to Airport Security intelligence official Oscar Brown and other cooperating persons who believe they face threats because of the investigation. The Agency also publicly commended King for voluntarily returning to Liberia and presenting himself before investigators, describing his cooperation as significant to establishing the full facts surrounding the case.
Taken together, the two Government statements suggest investigators may now be seeking not only to establish who physically handled the shipment, but also to identify those who conceived, financed, coordinated and protected the alleged operation.
King’s statement likewise raises additional questions that investigators will ultimately have to answer.
If GLS reported the shipment after identifying the weight discrepancy, when exactly was the LDEA first notified? Has the Joint National Security Investigative Task Force confirmed the timeline described in King’s statement? Have investigators corroborated the existence of previous shipments allegedly connected to the same customer? And has the investigation established who ultimately stood to benefit from the attempted export?
The statement also reiterates King’s contention that the shipment remained inside the GLS facility because it had not been accepted for carriage and that CCTV footage would show no interaction with the cargo after it was placed on hold pending resolution of the weight discrepancy. Those assertions, too, are capable of verification through surveillance footage and operational records already secured by investigators.
The Ministry of Justice did not respond to the Observer’s inquiries for this story before press time.
However, the Ministry has repeatedly emphasized that the investigation remains active and that no person of interest should be presumed guilty. At the same time, officials insist the inquiry has expanded beyond the seizure itself to determine whether Liberia was being used by a larger transnational narcotics organization.
Whether King’s statement ultimately strengthens, weakens or simply redirects that investigation will depend not on the claims themselves, but on what investigators are able to prove.
For now, the statement has accomplished one thing: it has shifted the public conversation beyond where the cocaine was found to the more consequential question of who organized the operation that put it there in the first place.
Source Daily Observer News
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