Sinoe County: Latest report reaching THE INDEPENDENT newspaper indicates that several illicit drugs dealers and addicts, brandishing cutlasses and single barrel guns recently attacked some officers of the Liberia Drugs Enforcement Agency (LDEA), in Juazon District, Sinoe County.
During the attack, one of the LDEA officers, identified as Wilson N. Nimene, was severely flogged with a stake on his right hand by the marauding drugs addicts who later escaped from the scene of the attack.
Officer Nimene was later rescued by some nearby community residents who came across him while grieving profusely as the other LDEA officers, having noticed that the addicts and dealers were fully armed with single barrel guns, cutlasses and other deadly weapons fled area for safety.
An eyewitness who prefers not to be named for security reason told this paper that one of the suspected drugs addicts was arrested at the Juazon Joint Security Check Point and subsequently detained.
According to the eyewitness, the suspect, not named, later escaped from detention through the window of the delipidated edifice where he was detained.
In an effort to have the escapee rearrested, according to our informer, the LDEA officers went on a patrol to the nearby town where the previously jailed drugs addict was located.
Immediately, the LDEA officers raised alarm for his arrest, but he again, swiftly fled the town.
Making another follow up, the LDEA officers saw the drugs addict in another nearby town, but this time, with two other individuals who were fully armed with cutlasses and single barrel pistols.
The wanted suspect who previously broke jail was also seen well-armed with a single barrel pistol, according to our informer.
While the LDEA officers were trying to handle the escapee, one of the men who were seen with him attacked one of the LDEA officers with stake and subsequently injured his right hand.
When it became clear that the men could overpower the LDEA officers, the two LDEA officers immediately fled the scene for safety, leaving behind their injured officer.
The LDEA officers said after the drugs dealers hit their colleague, they had no other option but to run away because they were not sophisticated to chase the armed men.
LDEA offices in Juazon, Sinoe County, Southeastern Region, could not be immediately reached for comment on the latest incident but the LDEA officer who was beaten with a stake confirmed the attack on him and two other LDEA officers.
Since the Boakai-Koung administration characterized the fight against illicit drugs as “national Emergency,” there have been increased hunts for unlawful drugs dealers and importers across the country by the Liberia Drugs Enforcement Agency (LDEA).
Reports suggest that an increasing number of the country’s estimated 5 million plus population, predominately young people, are addicted by narcotic and other dangerous substances, including cocaine, ‘kush’ among others.
