On 15 March 2023 at about 5 pm, plain-clothes officers raided the ‘api (allotment) of Sione Songo’imoli at Popua, where several people had gathered in and around two motor vehicles, and arrested a number of them over suspected illicit drugs.[1][2]
Heneli Manuofetoa was found beside a green Toyota sedan with a packet of cannabis weighing 0.41 g on the ground behind the car, and the judge accepted Officer Fifita’s evidence that Manuofetoa had thrown it there.[1][2] ‘Aisea Havea and Kaniteli Guttenbeil sat in a white Mazda holding an open black shoulder bag between them with eight packets of cannabis weighing 3.33 g, a smoking pipe and a lighter.[1][2]
After a trial on 5 and 6 March 2024, Justice Cooper convicted all three on 14 March 2024.[1][2] Manuofetoa received five and a half months’ imprisonment, concurrent with the 32-month term he was already serving, and the cannabis was ordered forfeited and destroyed.[1][2]
Havea and Guttenbeil, who had asked for pre-sentence reports, were sentenced on 5 April 2024.[2] Havea’s two-month suspended sentence was activated and he must then serve six months for the cannabis and utensil counts, served concurrently.[2] Guttenbeil’s ten-month suspended sentence was activated and he must then serve nine months for the cannabis count, with six months for the utensils concurrent, after breaching conditions that included a drug-awareness course.[2]