Shooter wounds two officers at Salelavalu marijuana raid
Police responding to a report of a marijuana plantation at Salelavalu, Savai'i on 1 October 2022 came under shotgun fire that left two officers with minor injuries. Police named three suspects and launched a manhunt after the raid.
On Saturday 1 October 2022, officers from the Tuasivi police substation on
Savai’i responded to a call about a marijuana plantation at Salelavalu.[1]
A shooter opened fire on the officers with a 12-gauge shotgun, injuring two of
them.[1]Both officers received only minor injuries, were taken to Tuasivi
Hospital and were released after treatment.[1]
Police named three suspects, Manuia Lafaele, Masina Lega Taulelei and Apisaloma
Setu, and appealed for public help to find them, saying they were wanted as a
result of the Salelavalu incident.[1]
Case data
Every number and detail the sources state, with the sources that state it.
The government ordered police to be armed during drug raids after drugs were found in boxes of frozen chicken, and the prime minister called drug trafficking a top priority. The order was an enforcement response, not a change in the Narcotics Act.
Samoa police arrested and charged a 34-year-old man after an outpost-led raid on a property in Savai'i, seizing fresh and dried marijuana plants, dried leaves and marijuana cigarettes. He was remanded in custody until 6 February 2024, and the police commissioner could not confirm the quantities taken.
Samoa Police arrested five suspects and seized 5,000 marijuana plants during an August 2023 drug raid at Faleatiu village in Samoa. Officers also confiscated marijuana seeds and unregistered firearms, with police estimating the street value of the plants at 250,000 talā.
Armed police led by Commissioner Fuiavaili'ili Egon Keil raided four marijuana farms in the mountains of Satapuala and Faleatiu on Upolu, arresting three men and taking 4,000 plants. Samoa Global News put the plants' street value at more than 4 million tala; the commissioner said the haul was smaller than the 10,000-plus plants found in the same hills a year earlier.
