Samoa man jailed 12 months for stealing 46 marijuana plants from police station
Samoa's Supreme Court jailed Pauvi 'Pana' Limu for 12 months after he broke into Apia police station and walked out with 46 marijuana plants held there from the November 2019 Faleatiu raid. Police said all the plants were recovered after a foot pursuit, and the judge called the break-in both extremely bold and unbelievably foolish.
Samoa’s Supreme Court jailed Pauvi ‘Pana’ Limu of Malifa for 12 months and
ordered 12 months of rehabilitative and educational programmes for alcohol
consumption after he pleaded guilty to aggravated burglary, theft and possession
of narcotics.[1]The 55-year-old accepted the Police Summary of Facts that he
had used a hammer to tear the screen wire of the old police training room where
the plants from the November 2019 Faleatiu raid had been kept.[1]
Limu put 46 marijuana plants valued at $46,000 tala into a rice sack and, so
intoxicated that he swayed, left the building through the front door where a
police officer saw him.[1]Police said all of the plants were recovered after
a brief foot pursuit.[1]
Justice Tafaoimalo Leilani Tuala-Warren treated the break-in at the Central
police station as an aggravating feature and described it as both extremely bold
and unbelievably foolish.[1]The judge noted Limu’s previous convictions for
theft and burglary dating back to 1979 and his last offending in 2003, but took
his early guilty pleas and the recovery of all 46 plants into account.[1]The
plants Limu took were part of the more than 10,000 marijuana plants Samoa Police
Service announced had been brought into Apia Station after the November 2019
Faleatiu raid.[1]
Photos and video
The old police training room at Apia Station holding marijuana plants from the November 2019 Faleatiu raid. Photo: Samoa Global NewsPhoto details
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Source: Samoa Global NewsPauvi 'Pana' Limu in the Supreme Court of Samoa on the day he was sentenced, 11 February 2020. Photo: Samoa Global NewsPhoto details
The date of the break-in itself is not given; the article reports it as the Saturday night after the 8 November 2019 Faleatiu raid, and 11 February 2020 is the sentencing date.
An earlier Samoa Global News report of 20 November 2019 said the bag contained 24 plants worth over $24,000 tala, while the police summary of facts at sentencing said 46 plants worth $46,000; the 46-plant figure is used because it is the account the court accepted.
The sentence for each of the three counts separately was not reported.
No appeal or later court step was reported in the opened sources.
The $46,000 tala figure is the police valuation of the plants, not a court-verified market value.
Left out, as its quotation was not found in RNZ: RNZ reported that the officer who saw Limu walk out pursued and apprehended him a couple of villages from the station, and that the plants came from a 2019 raid at Faleatiu village.
Tinofili Perenise, 28, was sentenced to one year and ten months in prison in Samoa after pleading guilty to possessing 45 marijuana cigarettes weighing 22.6 grams, which he admitted selling to fund his drug addiction. Police found the cigarettes and a glass pipe in a bag during a June search at Tafaigata, and the court treated the quantity and commercial intent as aggravating factors.
Sentenced 1Cannabis 22.6 gPrison 1 year and 10 months
Tulolo Lotele, 32, was sentenced to 18 months in prison by Samoa's Supreme Court after admitting possession of marijuana and utensils found when police searched his vehicle at Tauese on 6 January 2026. Justice Leutele Mata Tuatagaloa cut a two-year term by 25 per cent for his early plea, and the Alcohol and Drugs Court had refused him bail for earlier offences of the same kind.
Samoa's Supreme Court sentenced four people convicted after a December 2019 police raid at Fa'atoia, near Apia, where officers found marijuana and methamphetamine in a bedroom. A pregnant woman and a co-defendant were jailed for two years each, a third man was jailed for two years over a smoking party and a fourth was fined $2,000 for smoking marijuana.
Convicted 4Sentenced 4Prison 2 years for AJ Roache; 2 years for Ana Fuimaono; term for Tuitama not statedFine WST 2,000
Samoa's Supreme Court sentenced Darren Stanley, 23, to four years and three months in prison for cultivating the 71 marijuana plants that police found at a co-defendant's property in Vaiusu in August 2018. The judge set a starting point of four and a half years and deducted three months for his personal circumstances.
Convicted 1Sentenced 1Plants destroyed 71Prison 4 years and 3 months
