Photo: 123RF
Samoa’s acting police commissioner says police have carried out 20 drug raids in the first five months of the year, amid regional worry on drug trafficking.
The Samoa Observer reported Leiataua Samuelu Afamasaga made the comments during a press conference last week, where local reporters were shown items seized during the raids, which happened between 29 January and 26 May.
These included firearms, marijuana plants, methamphetamine, drug utensils and prescribed bottles containing drugs confiscated at the border.
The raids resulted in the seizure of just over 100 grams of methamphetamine.
A total of 55 people have been charged in relation to the raids.
They include 12 women aged between 18 and 47, and 43 men aged between 16 and 53.
It comes as two Samoan men have confessed on Vietnamese television to their involvement in what appears to be a gang-related shooting.
Joseph Vaa, 27, admitted to gunning down suspected ‘Coconut Cartel’ ringleader Lorenzo Lemalu Tovia. His associate, Steve Tofa, 23, also called Tafia in some news reports, then confessed to being his accomplice in the shooting.
Joseph Vaa, 27, admitted gunning down “Coconut Cartel” ringleader Lorenzo Lemalu Tovia outside a restaurant on 21 May. Vaa’s associate, Steve Tofa, 23, has confessed to being his accomplice in the shooting.
Photo: Screengrab / 7NEWS Sydney
Associate Professor Jose Sousa-Santos, from Canterbury University’s Pacific Regional Security Hub, has told TVNZ there was talk of up to NZ$1.5 million being offered as payment for the Ho Chi Minh City hit.
“This kind of money can get you influence at all levels of society in the Pacific – this shows you what level these cartels are playing at, and it also shows how difficult it will be for Pacific Island nations to counter criminal entities such as these which have such deep pockets.”
He said the influence of external formal entities – cartels, the triads, Australian syndicates and New Zealand syndicates – had developed in the Pacific over the last decade.
“What we are now seeing play out, which we’ve been raising the alarm about for five to ten years, is linked to the issues of deportees to the Pacific, drugs smuggling through the region, the growth of drug markets within the Pacific itself, and the fact that, within Australia, the larger syndicates have utilised Pacific Islanders as foot soldiers.”
The bank accounts of two New Zealanders have been frozen in connection to the case.
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In a further connection to New Zealand, three people have been stopped by police investigating the gang hit as they tried to board a flight from Samoa to Auckland.
The man, woman and child were bound for Auckland when they were arrested at Faleolo International Airport in Samoa on Thursday, 7 News Australia reported.
Documents obtained by RNZ Pacific show Samoa’s transnational crime unit issued an urgent directive to the Central Bank of Samoa last Wednesday, ordering six accounts and transactions connected to them to be immobilised.
Meanwhile, Australian Federal Police last week gave figures for drugs seized in the Pacific so far this year – more than three times the total amount seized in 2025.
A statement from Commissioner Krissy Barrett said 17 tonnes of illicit drugs, mostly cocaine, have been seized by local and international law enforcement in the Pacific since January.
Pacific police chiefs have endorsed the launch of Pacific Watch, an online crime-reporting service, while Australian and New Zealand police have announced they will fund a strike force in Colombia to fight the Pacific drug trade.
