Jewel Howard-Taylor faces charges of illegally facilitating, importing and selling drugs, alongside money laundering.

Liberia’s government announced the move on Tuesday, two days before the flight. Politicians say they were not consulted.

The Liberian government has insisted the deal is “not a transaction with a quid pro quo,” but that claim has failed to quiet the questions.

MONROVIA, Liberia — Liberian law enforcement agents burned some 4.2 metric tons of cocaine worth about $336 million on Thursday, days after authorities announced the country’s largest-ever drug seizure and implicated senior police officials in the trafficking operation.

Golden Touch Health Care was one of several Minnesota group home companies linked to Sekou Dukuly, who has served as the managing director of the Liberian National Port Authority since 2024. He told state authorities in 2025 he was the licensed assisted living director for its three group homes — even though an MPR News/APM Reports investigation found he lived overseas.

The arrangement is one of the largest known deals that the Trump administration has struck to expel migrants who cannot be sent back to their home countries.

U.S. President Donald Trump asked Liberian President Joseph Boakai where he learned to speak "so beautifully" during a White House meeting on Wednesday.