MONROVIA, Sept. 11 -- There is a version of this story in which the boat behind the Monrovia Central Prison is nothing more than a stray vessel, pushed toward shore by the tide and forgotten within days.

By Rodney D. Sieh, rodney.sieh@frontpageafricaonline.com and Gerald C. Koinyeneh, gerald.koinyeneh@frontpageafricaonline.com

But Thursday's discovery is difficult to view in isolation.

Five weeks ago, the prison's Deputy Superintendent for Operations, Jackson K. Kolako, publicly warned that he believed a plan was being developed to facilitate a mass jailbreak-potentially freeing foreign nationals detained in connection with Liberia's largest cocaine investigation.

Now, before dawn on Thursday, a vessel of disputed ownership and unexpl...