Officers of the Liberia Drug Enforcement Agency (LDEA) Grand Cape Mount County Detachment have arrested a nine year-old boy at the Bo Waterside Port of Entry with a certain quantity of marijuana.
Making the disclosure to the Liberia News Agency (LINA), LDEA County Commander, Joseph Tajandine, said the drug was found in the nine year-old boy’s book bag while on his way from school across the border in the Sierra Leonean town of Gendemah.
The LDEA local chief explained that the officers were carrying on their regular check when they discovered the marijuana in the kid’s book bag.
He said when quizzed as to how the marijuana got into his bag, the little boy informed the officers that the marijuana was placed in his book bag by his father whom he identified as Sekou Balo, a resident of Bo Waterside in Tewor District, Grad Cape Mount County.
According to Tajandine, after the name of the kid’s father was revealed, the officers immediately went in pursuit of the man and apprehend him.
He is currently remanded awaiting court trial, while the nine year-old has since been released after his grandmother signed for him.
The Bo Waterside Port of Entry has been a hotbed for drug traffickers who are applying various means to convey drugs across the Liberia-Sierra Leone border.
In early July, a well-known driver, Aaron Taylor, was arrested with a consignment of marijuana valued at L$2 million after he was used to transport the drug from Bo Kakowa in Sierra Leone.
About three weeks ago, officers of the LDEA assigned at the Sinje Checkpoint discovered seven kilograms of marijuana in the National Transit Authority bus, but the owner escaped.
However, this is the first time a minor has been used by the traffickers to smuggle drug across the border.
