By Linny Folau
A Tongan man serving life imprisonment for importing more than 3.5 kilograms of methamphetamine from the United States has lost his appeal against conviction in Tonga’s Court of Appeal.
Tohitongi Fetu’u was convicted in the Supreme Court last October for unlawfully importing 3,544.31 grams of methamphetamine into Tonga in 2024. He was sentenced in January this year after the court found he was the “linchpin” on the American end of the operation and had caused the drugs to be imported into the kingdom.
In a judgment delivered in Nuku’alofa on 15 May, Appeal Court judges Randerson, White and Dalton dismissed Fetu’u’s appeal and upheld the conviction.
The case stemmed from a sophisticated police investigation involving earlier drug importations from the United States in April and July 2024, after participant Joseph Taufa became a police informant.
The Crown alleged the drugs were hidden in a crate shipped from Oakland, California, to Nuku’alofa aboard the MV Polynesia. The crate, sent from SF Enterprises in Oakland on 9 July 2024, arrived in Tonga on 1 August and was consigned to Toni Tufui.
At the time, Fetu’u was in Hawaii. He told the court he had travelled there on 1 June 2024 and returned on 17 August after learning of his wife’s arrest.
The Court of Appeal considered four grounds of appeal, including arguments that the Crown had failed to prove the crate contained illicit drugs and that evidence linking Fetu’u to the shipment was insufficient.
Fetu’u also challenged the trial judge’s reliance on digital location data placing him at SF Oceania’s premises in Oakland, and disputed the credibility of informant Joseph Taufa.
However, the Appeal Court rejected those arguments and upheld the trial judge’s findings.
“We do not agree. This was a question for the trial judge. We see no reason to disturb his Lordship’s acceptance of Taufa’s credibility,” the judges said.
The court said text messages exchanged between Taufa and Fetu’u, evidence placing him at the shipping premises, and the delivery of the crate to Tonga strongly supported the Crown’s case.
“We accept that his evidence was important. But independently of his oral evidence so far as it concerned the appellant, the messages exchanged between Taufa and the appellant had greater significance,” the judgment stated.
The judges also found Fetu’u’s own evidence was “glaringly improbable and uncorroborated” and noted he shifted aspects of his testimony during cross-examination.
The Court of Appeal ultimately ruled there was ample corroboration of Taufa’s testimony and dismissed the appeal against conviction.
