Samoan police have reportedly charged a man with links to Sydney as part of a local probe into the murder of Australian gangster Lorenzo Lemalu in Vietnam last week.Alleged assassins Vaa Vaa and Steve Tafia, who face a potential death penalty, were captured three days after the shooting outside a restaurant in Ho Chi Minh City’s Ben Thanh Ward.Vietnamese police allege the Samoan nationals arrived in the city on May 14 and spent a week tracking their victims before the hit last Thursday, before publicly confessing this week.Lemalu, 24, was believed to be a senior figure in Sydney’s underworld crew the Coconut Cartel, while his associate Sam Sauni was also shot but survived.Samoan police on Thursday reportedly charged another man with links to Sydney’s west after he was stopped at Faleolo International Airport.The Samoa Observer reports he was arrested for questioning as officers probed local connections to the shooting, and was charged with providing false information to police.His lawyer said he intended to fight the charge, according to the Observer, and news.com.au makes no suggestion he was involved in the shooting.That man was among six people whose bank accounts were frozen by the Central Bank of Samoa on Wednesday at the request of police.Documents obtained by New Zealand media outlet RNZ said the freezing orders related to “an ongoing investigation into a serious violent incident that occurred in Vietnam”.Cambodian authorities have now declared it was its officers who caught Mr Tafia, 23, and Mr Vaa, 27, at a rented property located in the nation’s Preah Sihanouk province.They were then handed over to Vietnamese police, who had also claimed credit for the bust as they paraded the alleged killers at a press conference in Ho Chi Minh City.“Together with Tafia Steve, I came to Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam to commit murder and I was the person who directly used the gun to shoot and kill someone on May 21st,” Mr Vaa confessed at the press conference.“I realise that my actions were wrong and I deeply regret what I have done.”Mr Tafia said he and his accomplice had been sent to find and kill Lemalu and Mr Sauni, and that he “accept(ed) responsibility” for his actions.Investigators believe the duo used fake passports and transited through Fiji on the way to Vietnam. It is alleged they acted acting “under the direction of an individual abroad”.Lemalu was shot twice and “died on the spot”, according to Vietnamese police, while Mr Sauni was shot once and was “receiving intensive treatment”.Eight other people were detained in the southeast Asian country for allegedly helping the assassins escape, including a passenger transport driver named Nguyen Trong Nghia, 24.In Samoa, another man who police said they wanted for questioning issued a statement on social media denying any involvement in the plot.Local media reported the man worked at a luxury car rental business where the two confessed killers also worked.He was allegedly seen at Faleolo airport when Mr Vaa and Mr Tafia left for Vietnam.“I want to make this very clear: I had absolutely no involvement in what happened,” the man wrote on Facebook.“I only worked at the same place as certain people in the past. Outside of work, I had no connection to their personal lives or activities.”The US citizen posted again on Thursday to address “false information” being spread online and said he had already “voluntarily attended the police station … and fully cooperated”. “After speaking with officers, I was specifically allowed to leave and was told that if anything further was needed, they would contact me directly through my personal number, which I provided to them,” he wrote, adding that he was going to speak with police again.“Instead of contacting me, my photo was later posted publicly, making me look like I was hiding or avoiding police when that was never the case.”Acting Police Commissioner Leiataua Samuelu Afamasaga told the Observer last week that the probe into potential organised crime was the first of its kind in Samoa.“We have heard of large drug busts and organised criminal activity in Fiji, French Polynesia and other countries, but never here,” he said.“So, yes, this is concerning.”Read related topics:Sydney