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Checkpoint stop in the early morning hours of Christmas Day lands woman in jail

American Samoa District Court building
Fevaiga Tagovailoa made her initial appearance in District Court last month
ausage@samoanews.com

Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — The female passenger of a vehicle pulled over by police officers last month has been arrested and charged for illegal drug possession.

Fevaiga Tagovailoa made her initial appearance in District Court last month.

Tagovailoa is charged with one count of unlawful possession of methamphetamine (meth), a felony.

Bail is set at $5,000

THE CASE

On Dec. 25, 2021 at around 12:51 a.m, a black vehicle went through the sobriety checkpoint and was stopped by police officers. According to officers who were at the checkpoint, they observed the driver had blood shot eyes and suspected that he was driving while under the influence. Officers then instructed the driver to pull over to the tent, where a Standardized Field Sobriety Test (SFST) was conducted.

Upon arrival at the tent, the driver was asked to step out of the vehicle so tests could be conducted. There were two occupants in the vehicle — the driver and a passenger, a female, who was later identified as Fevaiga Tagovailoa, the defendant in this matter.

While the driver was given the SFST away from the vehicle, police officers anda  K9 conducted a sniff search on the exterior of the vehicle while Tagovailoa was still sitting inside the vehicle.

K9 Bella immediately alerted to the vehicle, and Tagovailoa was asked to exit the vehicle so that officers could conduct a detailed search of the interior of the vehicle. No contraband nor narcotics were found inside the vehicle.

Tagovailoa was also searched and a glass pipe containing a white crystalline substance was found in her hair. The white crystalline substance was tested and yielded positive for meth.

When asked about the glass pipe containing meth, Tagovailoa told investigators that she got the pipe from her dealer. She refused to reveal her dealer’s name to investigators.