31 Dec 2008

Samoa's police commissioner is to face a criminal investigation in relation to gun smuggling

2:51 pm on 31 December 2008

Samoa's Police Commissioner, Papalii Lorenese Neru, and the police patrol boat captain, Chief Inspector Logoitino Filipo, have been found in breach of duty by a Commission of Inquiry into the smuggling of firearms from American Samoa last April.

The commission has recommended that the Attorney General oversee a criminal investigation into the two senior police staff.

It says Papalii's response when he received the smuggled guns from the boat captain was a calamitous failure and unbecoming of a Commissioner of Police.

The commission's report says both Commissioner Neru and Chief Inspector Filipo have shown themselves to be undeserving of the honour of serving

in the Samoa Police Force, or of the trust that the public places in them.