VOA | Wikileaks Cable Suggests Sierra Leone Government Involvement in Cocaine Bust | Africa | English

Charge d'affaires for the US Embassy in Freetown, Glenn Fedzer, wrote in the secret cable that President Ernest Bai Koroma personally directed police not to investigate then Transport Minister, Kemoh Sesay.

Sesay's brother Mohamed, arrested as a key suspect in the cocaine bust, is currently serving a five-year prison sentence.

Sierra Leone's government disputes the information in the cable, saying it reflects the subjective viewpoint of an individual and is not based in fact.

Unisa Sesay is Communications Director at the Office of the President:

'Absolutely, as I said, they are far removed from reality and one starts doubting in fact the sources of this type of information,' said Sesay. 'Because you know our newspapers are full of a lot of speculations, rumors. So I mean it is absolutely untrue- What is in those cables is not true at all.'

The cable also suggests that the appointments of Kemoh Sesay as Transport Minister and his brother as manager of the National Football team were possibly made to facilitate drug trafficking.