MONROVIA, Aug. 29 -- The Liberia Drug Enforcement Agency (LDEA), the country's main anti-narcotics institution, has become a mirror of Liberia's deep institutional decay. Riddled with internal power struggles, public scandals, and allegations of complicity by government actors in the very crimes it is meant to combat, the LDEA today stands less as a symbol of hope and more as an emblem of failure in the country's fight against illicit drugs.

The agency has once again found itself in the spotlight following the August 28 dismissal of its top three officials - Director General Anthony K. Souh, Deputy Director for Administration Gwee Forkpa, and Deputy Director for Operations Sebastian Farr.

President Joseph Boakai, citing "administrative...