GOL Tightens Loop on International Criminals

19 July 2011

The Government of Liberia, through the Ministry of Justice and in collaboration with the United Nations Office on Drug and Crime (UNODC), has launched the Transnational Crime Unit (TCU).

The offices of the new unit are located within the National Headquarters building of the LNP on Capitol Hill in Monrovia, according to a police press release issued yesterday. The launch officially took place on July 14, 2011 during the first meeting of the TCU.

The TCU comprises of five law enforcement agencies including the Liberia National Police, National Security Agency, Bureau of Immigration and Naturalization, Bureau of Customs and Excise and Drug Enforcement Agency.

According to the LNP release signed by Chief of Press and Public Affairs, Mr. George Bardue, the objective of the TCU is to address drug trafficking, arms trafficking, human trafficking, and other transnational criminal matters amongst Sierra Leone, Guinea, Ivory Coast, and Liberia.

This unit was formed as a result of a Memorandum of Understanding signed by the five law enforcement agencies and UNODC in May 2011.

The government, also, established the TCU within the framework of West Africa Coast Initiative (WACI).

The establishment of TCU is an operational response to both the ECOWAS Regional Action Plan on Illicit Trafficking and Organized Crimes 2008-2011 and the Freetown Commitment on Combating Illicit Trafficking of Drugs and Transnational Crime signed on 17 February 2010.

The release further indicated that the TCU is a national inter-agency unit which is manned with staff from national law enforcement agencies, trained and equipped to fight transnational crime.

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