Members of the diplomatic corps when contacted by nightwatch to comment on the shameful and disgraceful discovery and arrest of seven suitcases load of a substance believed to be cocaine and cash to the tune of $100,000 in a vehicle belonging to the Sierra Leone Embassy in Conakry, Guinea, they suggested that going forward, any and every Sierra Leonean diplomat, and holder of the country’s diplomatic passport, and or vehicle leaving or returning to Freetown or elsewhere should and must be searched.
They said based on the arrest of the embassy driver and the declaration of the embattled Sierra Leonean Ambassador Alimamy Bangura as persona non grata by the Guinean Government and his recall by the Sierra Leone Government, Sierra Leonean diplomats or those using diplomatic passports should be searched as the country is indeed now a narcotics or narco-state, putting the country in an unenviable league alongside countries like Guinea Bissau, Mexico, Columbia, Afghanistan, Belize, Bolivia, Brazil, Honduras, among others.
Speaking on conditions of anonymity, the members of the international community disclosed that they have been following the activities of the Julius Maada Bio led government after he was hired by the people of Sierra Leone to lead their government although Bio had not worked for the 22 years since he left the country in 1996.
“To clarify, Sierra Leone is the new drugs haven. You have been in league with Guinea Bissau for a while but you have now surpassed them. We have been following the activities and plans of this regime as some of those closest to the president and Office of the President are known for their involvement in drug dealing, smuggling, and other criminal activities. Although Bio inherited a government coffer that he could have used to get his campaign promises off the ground, we had to assume that they will have to get involved in some form of criminality to fund the government’s activities. You can just imagine the freedom granted such people when they are handed diplomatic passports,” the diplomat said rhetorically.
A female member of the diplomatic community said that although diplomats are supposed to travel without being searched at customs as others, there is every need for people travelling with diplomatic passports from Sierra Leone to be searched because a lot of people were given these passports that are certainly not government people per se. She went on asking why were they given such passports and what have they been using them to do? Imagine that the Sierra Leone embassy vehicle that was arrested with the seven suitcases of what is believed to be cocaine and the $100,000 is just one incident of them being caught. Imagine how many other times they got away with such smuggling runs, including people travelling with diplomatic passports from Sierra Leone around the world that weren’t searched?
“People close to the president and the government are known to us for their involvement in importing and distributing drugs across the country and region, with many of them using the cover of simply owning a pharmacy to import large quantities of prescribed drugs that are mostly used or abused recreationally. For example, take the widespread use of the pain killer tramadol. This country imports way too much tramadol when the prescription for their use is very low. The rest of the pills get sold to drug dealers who pass them down to the users. Tramadol abuse in Sierra Leone is worse than the use searching any individual or vehicle traveling under the cover of diplomatic immunity,” the female diplomat averred.
The ranking diplomat said the reason why, despite the widespread use, sale and abuse of illicit recreational drugs in Sierra Leone, no one has been caught smuggling large quantities of illegal drugs into the country is because “the drugs have been getting into the country through diplomatic channels.”
The member of the diplomatic community continued: “The tipoff that led to the arrest of the Sierra Leone embassy vehicle in Conakry had to be done so as to expose what some members of the Sierra Leone government have been up to. Based on our investigations this regime has individuals, some with close family ties to the big shots in the government and ruling party who travel the region and further buying and smuggling drugs into the country using their new statuses as diplomats with immunity to do so. If we are to make any impact on the smuggling of drugs into the country then we will have to suspend diplomatic immunity for Sierra Leoneans travelling with diplomatic passports to and from Sierra Leone. You can see that although the nation and well-meaning people have been complaining about the proliferation of illicit drugs in country, the issue continues unabated. The reason is because those investigating drug smuggling, etc. should also be investigated.”
A member of the diplomatic community from an African country to Sierra Leone said he was not shocked by the discovery of drugs and cash in the Sierra Leone embassy vehicle, saying that they had all been waiting for what they had known about who has been smuggling drugs into the country and benefitting from the trade to become public knowledge.
“There is a female with close ties to the Office of the President who is well-known as the queen pen of the drugs trade in Sierra Leone. She and others like her have been making millions of dollars for themselves and the regime. We know how they smuggle the drugs in and the money out of the country. Such people take advantage of the person of a diplomatic agent being inviolable, as he or she shall not be liable to any form of arrest or detention. According to protocol, the receiving state shall treat the diplomat with due respect and shall take all appropriate steps to prevent any attack on his or her person, freedom or dignity. Ethically, diplomats demonstrate unwavering integrity in their actions and decisions as they are expected to be honest, truthful, and consistent in their dealings with foreign counterparts, their own government, and the public. However, the members of the diplomatic corps from Sierra Leone in Guinea have long been abusing their immunity by smuggling drugs and money for wiring to offshore accounts through Guinea. You must see how this incident can be tied to the Sierra Leoneans that were recently arrested and deported from Guinea for drug dealing: Those accused of selling drugs by the Guinean authority get their drugs from their embassy. A lot of people have become rich too quickly with none of them held for prosecution. A lot of arresting police officers use the arrest of drug dealers as a means of getting what they can from said dealers, not for their prosecution or to act as deterrence. We know that drug dealers and their drugs are released once money exchange hands at police stations across the country. The people of Sierra Leone should not expect for drug abuse to be effectively tackled by this regime as they use the money from this business to fund their lifestyles and stash money in foreign bank accounts,” one of the members of the diplomatic corps that spoke to this medium alleged.
Meanwhile, as the most senior or ranking diplomat, the ambassador represents the president or head of state. Although the ambassador was reportedly not in the vehicle when the drugs and cash were discovered, the actions of his subordinate staff have been levied against him on the principle that the head is responsible for the actions of the body, meaning that the driver of the embassy vehicle wouldn’t have unilaterally decided to leave Guinea without permission to come to Freetown and smuggle drugs and cash out of the country into Guinea. The assumption is that the ambassador and others must have had knowledge of what has been going on at the Sierra Leone embassy in Conakry with regards drug smuggling and dealing in Conakry.
“Obviously, with this governance drama that happened in Guinea, the Sierra Leone ambassador has not been a good manager, a resilient negotiator, and a respected representative of Sierra Leone and the president as he should have been. There is no way the ambassador or anyone from his staff or even the government can convince anyone that they had no idea of this driver’s excursions into Sierra Leone. The fact that a Sierra Leonean businessman with traces to Guinea was reportedly in the Guinea makes it impossible for no one at the embassy not knowing that such a trip was being made. At present any assumption made about this embarrassing episode in Conakry should be considered as true because we are still waiting on the government of Sierra Leone to take ownership of this issue and do all in their power to distance the government from such a dastardly act of criminality not only against the people but also against the image of the country and presidency,” the African diplomat noted.
Rampant drug abuse and a mushrooming of drugs cartels and ghettoes across Sierra Leone coupled with a police force that works on “orders from above” from a government that is reportedly knee deep in the illegal drugs trade has left the people of Sierra Leone with no one to turn to for help to stop the assault drug abuse has been able to deliver against the nation’s youthful population.
Government’s reported link to the drugs trade via people known for their involvement in this criminal activity makes it impossible for this regime to make any serious impact on the criminal elements that run the drugs smuggling and trade in the country. If the Ernest Bai Koroma government was described as a “criminal racketeering enterprise” by Professor David Francis, how would he describe his government? Lonta!