MONROVIA, Oct. 9 -- For months, Mark Egon Kuiah's name has hovered over Liberia's cocaine scandal without ever quite landing.

By Rodney D Sieh

He ran operations at Roberts International Airport, the country's main gateway, where 198 plates of cocaine were found in June hidden in cargo declared as Maggi cubes and lappas. That seizure, valued at more than US$19 million, opened the first of this year's drug cases. Weeks later, President Joseph Boakai dismissed Kuiah "with immediate effect" in a July 30 purge of security officials.

Now, the State has named him a defendant in its 55-page indictment in the far larger US$317 million case. But a FrontPageAfrica review of the document shows an unusual gap. Each of the 11 counts opens by listing...