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Two men appear in court on drug charges — one of them for dealing

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ausage@samoanews.com

Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — A man arrested by police two weeks ago is now charged with unlawful possession of illegal drugs after police discovered drugs on his person and inside his vehicle when he was pulled over during a traffic stop in Puapua.

On May 24th, two officers patrolling the Puapua public highway observed a red Tundra heading west at a high rate of speed. Officers followed the Tundra and initiated a traffic stop.

Officers approached the driver of the vehicle, who later identified himself as Faletolu Laulu, the defendant in this matter. Laulu was alone in his vehicle and seemed very surprised and questioned why he was being stopped.

One officer told Laulu that he was pulled over for speeding, however, Laulu told officers that he was driving at a normal rate of speed. The officer then provided Laulu with proof of why his vehicle was pulled over — but the police report does not detail this proof.

When asked for his driver’s license, Laulu told officers that he forgot his license at home and his license is also expired. He only provided another expired photo ID to confirm his identity.

Laulu was informed that his vehicle would be impound because he didn’t have a valid driver’s license. Laulu was also informed that he would be put in police custody and transported to the Tafuna Police Substation (TPS) for further investigation.

Before Laulu was transported to the TPS, a body search was conducted and a glass pipe containing white crystalline substance and two hand rolled marijuana joints were discovered inside his rear pocket.

An inventory search was conducted on the vehicle and police discovered two small stamp-sized baggies containing white crystalline substance under the passenger’s seat.

When questioned about the illegal drugs found inside his vehicle, Laulu said that the drugs did not belong to him, but to his uncle who owns the vehicle. He told police that he borrowed his uncle’s vehicle four days prior to the traffic stop to transport his crops to the market.

On the morning of May 24th before he was pulled over, he was shocked when he found drugs inside the car while he was cleaning it. He took the glass pipe containing meth and two hand rolled marijuana joints and put them inside his pocket. Laulu said he did not know that there were also drugs under the passenger’s seat.

Laulu made his initial appearance in court last week. He is represented by Assistant Public Defender, Bob Stuart while prosecuting the case is Assistant Attorney General, Kristie Soule.

Laulu is charged with one count of unlawful possession of methamphetamine and one count of unlawful possession of marijuana, both unclassified felonies punishable by imprisonment from 5- 10 years, a fine of up to $20,000 or both.

Bail is set at $5,000.

MOE FALANIKO

A huge quantity of methamphetamine was allegedly found on a man from Fagatogo when police executed a search warrant last month.

The search warrant instructed police to search a man by the name of Moe Falaniko, the defendant in this case, and his place of residence in the village of Fagatogo.

Around 10a.m on the morning of Friday, May 22, 2020, police observed Falaniko in front of the Fagatogo Pavilion making his way up to his house. Police immediately approached Falaniko and informed him about the search warrant and then executed it.

Falaniko did not agree to comply and started acting disorderly when a police captain patted him down for any weapons. When Falaniko started resisting more, officers from the Fagatogo Central Station (FCS) ran over to assist and placed Falaniko in handcuffs.

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

The white crystalline and the green leafy substances were later tested using the Reagent Field Test and the result was positive for methamphetamine and marijuana.

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 empty glass pipe commonly used to smoke meth.

After reading of constitutional rights, Falaniko said he understood and he wished to make a statement to police.

He stated to police that he just came from Iliili by bus from reloading from a drug dealer and was surprised when arrested by police. He bought an “8 ball” (8th of an ounce) worth about $800 US currency, but the dealer gave it to him for about $300 because it was his son’s birthday on the following Monday.

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

The estimated street value of the methamphetamine and marijuana allegedly discovered on the defendant would be worth about $2,000- $3,000.

When Falaniko made his initial appearance in court he was charged with unlawful possession of methamphetamine, one count of unlawful possession of methamphetamine 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.

Bail is set at $30,000.

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

Pretrial conference is July 17th.