Five teens arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to cause riot

Acting Police spokesperson, Su’a Le Mamea Tiumalu says they are trying to determine whether the teenagers are part of a criminal gang.

However, he says they were apprehended on suspicions of conspiracy to cause a riot.

“The five teenagers are under investigations for planning to start a fight in town. Police were monitoring social media and thanks to the help of the public we identified a few who were having exchanges about starting a brawl in town,” said Su’a.

“None of these kids are from the town area, as a matter of fact they live in the outskirts of the urban villages,” said Su’a.

Despite the hard work of police resulting in the revealing and capturing of members of the infamous group called OBO, or Original Blood Outlaws, Police have become the subject of criticism from the villagers over the way they have addressed the issues in the media.

“The village of Vaimoso has visited our station and expressed their dismay about how the police addressed the issue on television. We believed that we had to send the message through in a strong, straightforward language. Unfortunately they felt it was a breach of our cultural ethics,” said Su’a.

He formally apologized on the Police’s part saying while it has assisted in capturing the gangs, it is the right thing to do when a line has been crossed.

Meanwhile Police say they are investigating more than 20 members of the alleged OBO gang who were punished by the village early this week.

Su’a says there hasn’t been enough evidence yet to prove they were a part of an illegal gang.

“We the police cannot just charge someone without proper measures taken, we have to look into them and investigate and that’s what we are doing with this group,” he said.

Su’a says if they are proven guilty, they could face charges of conspiracy to commit a crime, unlawful assembly, disorderly conduct, and vandalism.

These offences could result in up to 4 years in jail.