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Two men allegedly not new to the drug scene now facing charges

American Samoa High Court building
ausage@samoanews.com

Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — Two men arrested after police officers executed search warrants in June of this year, are now charged with violating local drug laws. One of them is on probation for unlawful possession and stealing.

One of the men was arrested when police executed a search warrant on a vehicle and a home in Vaitogi, while a second search warrant was executed on a vehicle in Tafuna, where police also discovered drugs, and the driver of the vehicle was arrested and is now being charged.

The two men are Tomani Willie and Eric Alama, and they made their initial appearances in District Court last month, where they waived their rights to a preliminary examination.

The two defendants appeared in High Court at the beginning of this month for arraignment where they entered not guilty pleas to all the charges against them. Their first pretrial conference is Oct. 30th.

Willie, who owns the vehicle where drugs, drug paraphernalia and money were allegedly found as well as in his home in Vaitogi, is charged with unlawful possession of a controlled substance, to wit; methamphetamine (meth) with intent to distribute and unlawful possession of a controlled substance, to wit; meth, both felonies.

Willie’s cash bond has been set in the amount of $20,000.

Alama, who is on probation for a previous charge, is charged with one count each of unlawful possession of a controlled substance, to wit; meth, a felony punishable by a term of imprisonment of not less than five nor more than ten years and a fine of not less than $5,000 nor more than $20,000, or both.

Cash bond for Alama is $5,000.

WILLIE’S CASE

According to the government case, on June. 20th, 2021 around 7:30a.m police officers executed a search warrant on a red pickup truck parked on the side of the road in Vaitogi after police spotted Willie’s vehicle while he was speaking to another male walking on the road.

The male whom Willie spoke to when police approached his vehicle quickly fled the area and ran behind the bus.

Police approached the driver of the truck, who was later identified as Willie, and informed him about the search warrant and asked him to exit the vehicle. There was also a female inside Willie’s truck, who was instructed to exit the vehicle for a body search. The female, who was named in the affidavit, was let go by police after she was frisked and later interviewed at the Tafuna Police Substation (TPS).

Nothing was found on her during the body search, and during her interview, she told investigators that Willie was her boyfriend and they had been on their way to pick up a mechanic to fix a vehicle for Willie.

She further told police she knows nothing about the items founds inside the vehicle, but explained that she had seen a lot of ‘stuff’ — ice or ’aisa’ — and money inside Willie’s vehicle whenever she entered it.

She is alleged to also have told police that before they were pulled over by police, they had gone to Tafeta so Willie could deliver meth to a person; and that that same person had bought $100 worth of marijuana from Willie while they were there.

She further stated that every time she went to Willie’s house, she noticed many vehicles and people coming to Willie’s residence. There was a time, according to the passenger’s statement to police, when Willie told her not to say anything about people coming to his house to pick up their supplies. He also told her that if she loves him, she needs to keep what she saw a secret only between the two of them.

“I asked Willie what supplies he was talking about, and he smiled and told me that it was illegal drugs,” she told police before she was released to go home. The female passenger was advised by investigators not to have any contact with Willie.

The court affidavit states that when Willie was asked to exit his vehicle, Willie immediately asked one of the officers if he could help him get away from this and he would meet him later ‘to square things up’. The police officer told Willie to comply with investigators’ instructions, after which Willie was frisked and immediately detained inside one of the police units.

When Wille’s truck was searched, he again asked the police officer if he could help him, however the police officer opened the rear passenger side door of the vehicle, where a white envelope was immediately observed under the passenger side seat .

Pointing to the white envelope, the officer asked Willie what was inside it. Willie paused for few seconds before he responded, “It’s drugs.”

Found inside the white envelope were two stamp-size baggies each containing white crystalline substance, as well as a glass pipe containing a white crystalline substance, one cut up straw containing a white crystalline substance, 2 empty baggies differing in size, and USD $650 cash — mainly in 20 dollar bills.

The white crystalline substances found in the glass pipe, the cut-up straw and baggies tested positive for meth.

After completing the search of Willie’s vehicle, the police then moved to his residence also in Vaitogi where police discovered empty cut up straws and two glass pipes in a vehicle that was parked outside of Willie’s home. No drugs were found in that vehicle, only paraphernalia.

No drugs or paraphernalia were found in Willie’s house.

ALAMA’S CASE

Around 1:15p.m, on the same day, a maroon truck was observed and stopped by police in the Faleniu area. The driver of the vehicle was later identified as Eric Alama, the defendant in this matter.

Police approached Alama and informed him of the search warrant. When a physical search was conducted on Alama, two small baggies containing crystalline substance were discovered in the front right pocket of his pants.

In his statement to police after being Mirandized, Alama stated he found the baggies in a friend’s vehicle, and he picked them up and put them in his pocket without his friend’s knowledge.

When police asked Alama who his friend was, he replied, “TOMMY”. Tommy is another name for Tomani Willie, the co-defendant in this case.

He further stated to police that he knows Willie sells drugs. He stated “that everyone knew it.”

Alama was sentenced to 5 years probation by the High Court in 2017, after being convicted of unlawful possession of meth, and was ordered to serve a period of detention of 20 months at the Territorial Correctional Facility (TCF).

However, the court ordered Alama to serve only 12 months of his period of detention, while the remaining period of detention was stayed until further order of the court.