The Liberian Supreme Court had ordered the federal government to return the sum of $113,000 to defendants who were standing trial in a $100M cocaine case but were discharged and acquitted.
The defendants, Malam Conte, Adulai Djibril Djalo, Makki Ahmad Issam and Oliver A. Zayzay, were accused by the government of shipping cocaine worth $100 million into the country last year.
The verdict was given by the President of the court, Associate Justice Yamie Quiqui Gbeisay, who also denied a writ of prohibition filed by the government through the Ministry of Justice, challenging the return of the money to the men.
The government had argued that the money in question was confiscated from one Gustavo Henrique who was tried in absentia and was not among those acquitted by the lower court.
The Justice Ministry insisted that the money was confiscated during the arrest of one of the four defendants, Malam Conte, at the premises of TRH Trading, the company that shipped the cocaine into the country.
The 520kg haul of cocaine substance was seized by authorities in 2022 among containers that TRH Trading had imported from Brazil where the drug worth over $100 million was discovered, making it one of the largest drug-related cases in the country’s history.
According to TRH Trading, a subsidiary of AJA Group Holdings, the accused allegedly offered to pay $200,000 for a single container of frozen foods on which the cocaine was smuggled, which at the time cost less than $30,000.
The government also argued that Henrique absconded from Liberia upon learning of the arrest of Malam Conte on October 1, 2022, and was never brought under the jurisdiction of the court.
“For the State to return any money, it has to be based upon a process initiated by Gustavo Henrique, and not any of the four individuals,” the government argued.
They were arraigned on charges bordering on “commission of money laundering, unlicensed possession of controlled drugs and unlicensed importation of controlled drugs.”
After months of trial, the accused were exonerated and acquitted of all the charges by an empaneled jury.
According to the jury, the accused had no knowledge of the cocaine smuggling operation as claimed by the government, and that the money seized from the men should be returned to them.