Residents of Karpeh Street in the slum community of New Kru Town are reeling from what is said to be well-planned and calculated joint security anti-drug raid on a particular family said to be involved in the peddling of drugs.
Saturday’s raid executed by a team of police, LDEA and army officers targeted an area closed to the Greater Vision High School, few yards away from Duala Market.
Eyewitnesses told this paper that several members of the targeted family were arrested during the raid that saw officers searched their different homes for suspected drugs.
It is also gathered that it is not first time the concerned homes have been subjected to raid for drugs, but no sooner than later they are back into business.
Some eyewitness blamed the situation on one of the accused family said to be the ring-leader in the business having intimate relationship with agents in the field.
One eyewitness said she left the area before the team arrived there, with suggestions that she might have been informed in advance by someone in the system.
Whether the offices made away with any drugs during the raid is scanty.
Community members rushed to the scene after the team left, discussing the issue in different groupings. A family member who was apparently not around during the raid was heard in a phone call informing another family member the extent of the raid.
“The guys ransacked the entire room; scattered almost everything,” he was heard on the phone communicating. “The situation is serious and scaring.”
The congested zinc-shacks community is said to be a major hub for the sale and use of drug by young people.
The raid comes at the time of heightened efforts by national security apparatus led by the LDEA to eradicate the drug menace that has since become a national security issue, affecting the country’s youthful population.
Last week, LDEA Officer-In-Charge, Fitzgerald Biago reiterated the Agency’s unwavering determination to go after drug dealers and users wherever they are.
Speaking in Tubmanburg, Bomi County last week, OIC Biago did not mince words in stating the LDEA’s readiness to deal with its agents or officers who are shady deal with drug traffickers, aiding and abetting them.
“This is a warning to LDEA officers; if you are here and involved into shady deals, you either with us or against,” OIC Biago warned. “We will weed you out. We want credible DEA officers that will go after drugs traffickers or abusers.”
According to him, it is inconceivable and insufferable for LDEA officers to become the abusers, or the ones aiding and abetting traffickers, emphasizing “We will weed you out.”
OIC Biago also urged Liberians to not only focus on LDEA officers, but should equally expose police, Immigration, fire Service and other officers of the national security architecture found aiding and abetting drugs traffickers.
His comments are in line with the recent exposure of an LDEA officer (Payne) who was caught in a leaked video, demanding the release of a drug-abused lady he claimed to be his daughter.
She was arrested in a ghetto along with several other drug peddlers and users, some of whom escaped arrest, while others attacked LDEA officers.
Officer Payne’s attitude also allegedly necessitated the dismissal of three top brass of the LDEA by President Boakai, citing administrative reasons for their sacking.
Biago said the LDEA has in place a very sturdy intelligence network, collaborating with civil society organizations (CSOs), motorcyclists union, citizens, marketers and religious community, adding “We have our hotlines to weed out the bad apples among the good apples in the agency.”
Thanking the civil society grouping in Bomi County for inviting them for a community engagement, he said they intend to use such platform as an integral part in the fight against drugs, to eradicate drugs in western Liberia.
Biago reiterated the commitment of his men in black to eradication of Liberia, noting “We want to build a LDEA that is responsive, credible, disciplined and served with professionalism and integrity.”