The Attorney General’s Office is now investigating the issuance of a US passport to Leafaitulagi Siaumau, who's charged with possession of marijuana with intent to distribute.
Information received by KHJ News indicates that the passport was applied under the one parent law which entitles foreign born nationals, one of whose parents was born in American Samoa to become a US national and be issued a US passport.
The investigation is also looking into how the defendant was able to leave the territory in 2001 when her travel documents had been turned over to authorities while she was under investigation for the marijuana incident in 2001.
For now the probe is being handled by local authorities but its expected that federal agencies will become involved at some stage because of the issuance of the US passport.
Leafaitulagi Siaumau, the mother of Siaumau Siaumau Jr., charged with the murder last Thursday of Lt, Liusila Brown, pled not guilty in High Court this morning to the drug charge.
The government alleges that on April 30, 2001, a customs agent found 100 rolled marijuana joints and 10.4 grams of loose marijuana leaves in a purse that the defendant, who was arriving from Apia,. was carrying.
According to a court affidavit, when the customs officer asked Mrs. Siaumau for her shoulder bag she said it was just a purse with her panties.
The agent reached for the bag and Siaumau appeared to be trying to grab it away from him according to the affidavit.
Inside the purse was a dress and when the agent unfolded the dress he saw a clear plastic bag with what appeared to be many suspected marijuana cigarettes as well as another plastic bag with loose marijuana.
Mrs. Siaumau was then taken to the police station, accompanied by her husband whome she had traveled with from Apia.;
At the police station she said that a woman at the airport in Samoa gave her the bag and said to give it to my boy waiting at Tafuna airport.
She claimed she had no idea what was in the bag and did not know the lady though she later told officer that the lady is my friend.
The affidavit says Siaumau was booked and released because of her children. But early the next morning she and her husband visited the residence of then head of the Vice and Narcotics Division of Public Safety Leseiau Vaitoelau Laumoli, and told the office that the person who gave the marijuana would be arriving in American Samoa that day.
The woman turned out to be a sister of the defendant, Lalago faatasi Paitomaleifi.
Customs agents found on Paitomaleifi a pipe which looked like it was adapted for smoking marijuana. The woman claimed to have found the pipe on the ground and picked it up not knowing what it was.
Paitomaleifi was taken to the substation west and she made a statament that she owned the marijuana which her sister, Leafaitulagi Siaumau brought to American Samoa the previous evening.
The affidavit by Laumoli states he did not believe the statement by Leafaitulagi Siaumau that she did not know of the marijuana in her bag as this was inconsistent with her behavior when she was going through customs.
Laumoli further states that even the heaviest of marijuana users will nto smoke more than two marijuana cigarettes by himself in a single day and will not pre roll much more than a two day supply of points because they tend to dry out, which diminishes the potency and makes the taste more harsh.
The officer said the amount of marijuana and the pre rolling of 100 cigarettes is consistent in his training and experience with an intention to distribute.
A field test of one of the 100 suspected marijuana cigarettes and the loose substance in the baggie was positive for the active ingredient of marijuana.
Mrs. Siaumau’s pre trial conference is set for September 3rd. Her attorney, Assistant Public Defender Stephanie Barrens said she would be filing a motion to dismiss based on the statue of limitation.
Again police security was tight and all lawyers, media and defendants in other cases and their family members were patted and had their bags checked.
