Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — A man accused of violating local drug laws before the end of last year was arrested by police two months ago. The man, Saipale Fei fled from police officers during a traffic stop, however, he was charged after being arrested for disturbing the public peace at his village. 

He was served with a copy of the arrest warrant from last year.

Fei made his initial appearance in Court.

Fei is charged with one count of unlawful possession of a controlled substance meth; and one count of unlawful possession of a controlled substance meth with intent to distribute; and one count of unlawful possession of marijuana, all unclassified felonies; along with one count of public peace disturbance, a class B misdemeanor.

The court established bail at $20,000.

THE CASE

The government claims that on Dec. 27, 2021 at about 5:50p.m, two police officers who were patrolling the public highway on the west side received a radio transmission from another patrol car stating that they were in a hot pursuit of a vehicle that was heading straight to Leone.

The patrolling officers who received the radio transmission responded and headed to the area mentioned during the radio transmission. The police pursuit ended with one of the police units continuing to pursue the vehicle at a very high rate of speed until they reached a dead end.

Two males were seen exiting the truck and fleeing on foot towards the bush and immediately out of police sight. Two police officers continued pursuit of the two males on foot and they eventually found one of the men hiding inside a bushy area and immediately apprehended him. He was later identified as Joseph Filo, a co-defendant in this matter. Officers discovered two cut up straws containing white crystalline substance and cash on Filo.

A search was conducted on the vehicle and found were one stamp sized baggie containing a white crystalline substance and one marijuana joint.

The government claims that the vehicle was an old truck, with no license plate, and keys were not in the ignition, so the vehicle was left at the scene.

Filo was transported to the TPS for questioning. He told investigators that everything that was discovered inside the vehicle belonged to the person who drove the vehicle, Saipele Fei, the defendant in this matter.

(Filo was arrested and charged and his case is still pending in court.)

According to the government, the co-defendant (Filo) was in the passenger seat while Fei was the driver of the vehicle.

The co-defendant further stated that the drugs that were discovered by police when they apprehended him were given to him by Fei as a gift.

The white crystalline substance inside the two cut up straws found in the co-defendant’s possession were tested and were positive for meth.

Officers also tested drugs that were discovered inside the vehicle and they tested positive at illegal drugs too.

Investigators tried to locate Fei but he was nowhere to be found at the time.