The Samoa Police Commissioner Auapa'au Logoitino Filipo has confirmed that the Ministry does not have any new leads in identifying the gateway of illicit drugs into the country. 

However, he is confident that with their newly established bi-lateral agreement with law enforcers in American Samoa, they will be able to crack down on how drugs are imported into Samoa. 

Auapa'au made the comments in response to queries from this newspaper on Wednesday. 

"Right now, we are still working on identifying how the drugs are being imported into the country," he said. 

"We don't have a new lead. However, I can confirm that we have established an agreement with law enforcers and the Police Department in American Samoa. It's a bi-lateral partnership where we will be assisting each other in identifying how these illicit drugs are being imported to Samoa."

Auapa'au who is the Chair of the Pacific Transnational Crime Network (P.T.C.N.) did confirm in a recent interview with this newspaper that the smuggling of illicit drugs within the Pacific region continues to increase, and traces its roots back to South America. 

The effect of this has been noticed in Samoa with larger quantities of methamphetamine being seized at a more frequent rate. 

Auapa'au said it has been identified that the drugs discovered by some of the Pacific Island countries are brought from South America down to New Zealand and Australia. 

"It has been identified that drug smuggling has increased within the region, tracing its roots all the way to South America, coming down to Australia and New Zealand because it is seen as a lucrative market. 

"There are offers of one kilo of meth for an estimated cost of about $AUD200k. 

"This has been identified through some of the detection carried out by the New Zealand Navy which has recently picked up three kilos of meth as well as some of the big drug busts in Australia through its maritime space. 

"So yes, it is definitely increasing."