Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — A quantity of methamphetamine (meth) was allegedly found on a man from Happy Valley when police arrested him on a warrant last month while he was in the Fagatogo area. Police wanted to question him about involvement in an incident where he and another man allegedly broke into a store in Malaeimi in March of this year and stole several items.

It was during Misiolo Eneliko’s arrest that officers discovered the drugs on him.

When police approached him he started acting disorderly when a police captain patted him down for weapons. When Eneliko started resisting more, officers from the Fagatogo Central Station (FCS) ran over to assist and placed Eneliko in handcuffs.

Police searched the defendant after his hands were cuffed and found a baggie containing white crystalline substance inside the right pocket of his pants. Police searched Eneliko’s left pocket and found another baggie containing a green leafy substance.

The white crystalline and the green leafy substances were later tested and the results were positive for meth and THC, the active compound in marijuana, respectively.

The search was moved to the defendant’s home according to the search warrant and no drugs were found, but several items found were identified as commonly used by people distributing drugs — like empty stamp sized baggies, scissors, a scale, propane tank and an empty glass pipe commonly used to smoke meth.

After he was Mirandized, Eneliko said he understood and he wished to make a statement to police.

He stated to police that he had just came from Iliili by bus from reloading from a drug dealer and was surprised when arrested by police. He bought meth from another man for $200 US currency but the dealer gave it to him for about $100 because it was his daughter’s birthday on the following week.

The baggie containing green leafy was purchased from another dealer from the same area for about $100.

The estimated street value of the meth and marijuana allegedly discovered on the defendant was about $2,000- $3,000.

When Eneliko made his initial appearance in court he was charged with unlawful possession of meth, one count of unlawful possession of meth with the intent to distribute; one count of unlawful possession of marijuana; and one count of unlawful possession of marijuana with the intent to distribute; all unclassified felonies, punishable by imprisonment from 5- 10 years, a fine of up to $20,000 or both, along with one count of stealing and one count of burglary, both felonies.

Bail is set at $10,000.

Eneliko waived his rights to a preliminary examination during his initial appearance and his case was bound over to High Court where he appeared three weeks ago entering a not guilty plea to all the charges against him.

Pretrial conference is next month. No further mention was contained in the report about the break-in at the Malaeimi store.