Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — Two men were arrested by police last month during a traffic stop on the allegation that illegal drugs were found in their possession are now charged with violating local drug laws. Both men also had outstanding bench warrants for failing to appear in District court during their Probation Review hearings last year.

The driver, Tavita Anapapa, and the passenger, Willie Foma’i, made their initial appearances in District Court two weeks ago.

Anapapa is charged with one count of unlawful possession of methamphetamine, a felony, while Foma’i is charged with one count of unlawful possession of marijuana, also a felony.

Bail for both men is set at $5,000 each, and the preliminary examination is Wednesday next week, June 17th.

THE CASE

On May 26th, patrolling police officers conducted a traffic stop on a pickup truck after it didn’t stop at a stop sign in Faleniu. The driver also was not wearing a seat belt when his vehicle was pulled over. It was later discovered that both the driver and the passenger had outstanding bench warrants. The case was transferred to the DPS Vice and Narcotics Unit from Traffic.

According to the traffic officers, after stopping the truck for the traffic violation when coming down from the road in Faleniu, Tavita Anapapa and Willie Foma’i were found in the truck.

Anapapa did not produce a driver’s license when asked for one; but police were aware of an outstanding bench warrant in his name for failure to appear in court in October of last year. Police were also aware of a bench warrant for Foma’i.

Both men were taken in for questioning. Prior to that, a pat down netted a clear glass pipe (commonly used to smoke meth) in Anapapa’s left pocket. The glass pipe contained a useable amount of a white crystalline substance.

During a body search of Foma’i, police discovered a small baggie containing a green leafy substance in his right pocket.

The white crystalline and green leafy substances were tested and the results were positive for methamphetamine and marijuana, respectively.

Anapapa and Foma’i refused to give statements to police. They both told police that they needed to speak to their attorney before they issued any statement regarding the incident.