A cocaine shipment worth around £14 million, linked to Dutch drugs kingpin Jos Leijdekkers, was intercepted in Liberia before completing its planned 5,000-mile journey from Colombia to an address in the Bordesley Green area of Birmingham.
Officials in Liberia discovered the consignment disguised as stock cubes on a Brussels Airways flight heading to Heathrow in June. British national Usman Ali has been charged in the West African country, along with four others, in connection with the plot and is currently the subject of an international manhunt.
Shipment linked to West Africa network
The shipment had come from neighbouring Sierra Leone and has been linked by police to Leijdekkers, known as "Chubby Jos". A second £230 million cocaine seizure, the largest in Liberia's history, was stopped in the capital Monrovia in July. Former Vice President Jewel Howard-Taylor was charged with drug trafficking, money laundering and other offences in connection with this shipment, and Croatian national Nikola Ivancic is accused of masterminding the plot.
Leijdekkers, 35, has built one of the world's most powerful cocaine empires from his base in West Africa, under the alleged protection of some of Sierra Leone's most powerful figures.
Liberian senator urges UK action
Liberian Senator Amara Konneh visited Britain this week to lobby MPs and peers in an effort to win support for his fight against Leijdekkers' organised crime group. Mr Konneh told us: "The UK and Liberia need to come together now to deal with this common threat. We see a network that is trying to infiltrate our institutions, that is trying to corrupt our systems to find safe havens in our county. It is the same network that is supplying the streets of London and Birmingham."
Mr Konneh said Ali could be hiding in Britain and appealed to UK law enforcement to track him down. He said: "We were hoping that the British authorities will accelerate their search for him here in England and hopefully make him available to Liberia to face justice. If not they could work with our authorities to review the evidence against him and hopefully prosecute him here in England."
Liberian President Joseph Boakai has made a request to the British government for assistance. Mr Konneh added: "I know that conversation is happening. What I want to see is a more robust partnership, not just in one case, but between our institutions so we can share intelligence."
Global reach of the cocaine trade
A specialist unit at the National Crime Agency is reportedly investigating Leijdekkers' links to the UK. His drug operation, said to be worth more than Sierra Leone's entire national budget, reflects a shift in the cocaine trade. West Africa now accounts for at least 30% of the drug reaching Europe, according to the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organised Crime.
In an attempt to persuade one of Leijdekkers' contacts to betray him, Dutch prosecutors this month announced a £1.6 million reward for information leading to his arrest. He has lived in exile in Sierra Leone, a former British colony, since at least 2022. He was filmed at a New Year's Day church service alongside the country's first family, and handing out gifts at a party to senior officials, including the head of the drug police. He is believed to be in a relationship with a daughter of Sierra Leone's President Julius Maada Bio, and they reportedly have a child.
Since the arrest of Irish crime boss Daniel Kinahan in Dubai in August, Leijdekkers is believed to be the world's most-wanted drug smuggler. He uses the pseudonym Omar Sheriff, but is known as "Bolle Jos", Dutch for chubby. The kingpin is wanted by the Dutch and Belgian authorities, who have sentenced him to more than 100 years in his absence. At least 14 people have reportedly been murdered in Sierra Leone on Leijdekkers' orders, including high-ranking police officers.
Prosecutors cited the case of a young Amsterdam woman, Naima Jillal, who vanished in 2019 after encrypted messages linked Leijdekkers to her disappearance. Dutch special forces are believed to have come close to capturing the villain twice this year as he travelled between Sierra Leone and Liberia by boat, but the operations were aborted.
The European Commission suspended £15 million in aid to Sierra Leone last month, which the Dutch authorities said was punishment for the refusal to extradite Leijdekkers. Mr Konneh fears he is attempting to expand his empire into Liberia after the June seizure was linked to him.
Impact on Liberia and UK demand
The senator sees the trade as the biggest threat to his country since an estimated 200,000 people were killed during civil wars that ravaged Liberia between 1989 and 2003. Former president Charles Taylor is serving a 50-year sentence in the UK for war crimes, including the use of child soldiers. Figures published last week revealed deaths from cocaine in England and Wales have nearly quadrupled in a decade, overtaking those attributed to heroin for the first time. In England alone, the Home Office estimates the market is worth £9.8 billion.
Mr Konneh said: "The demand for cocaine here in Britain is fuelling a potentially destabilising force in my country that is still recovering from a civil war. We have managed to restore stability. We have had four successive democratic transitions. Our people are moving on and then all of a sudden we see this menace that is trying to destroy all of that."
The Home Office said: "The National Crime Agency and Border Force are working closely with partners across West Africa to disrupt drug trafficking routes and dismantle the criminal gangs behind them."
