By Linny Folau

Kepilini Pole’o was found guilty of possessing 0.13 grams of methamphetamine seized at a residence in Vaini, after Tonga Police received information that drugs were being sold from there.

Lord Chief Justice Whitten QC found the accused guilty on the possession offence on September 1, at the Nuku'alofa Supreme Court.

However, she pleaded guilty to two others counts of destruction of evidence and possession of utensils.

He said the accused and Sifitanu Afu were charged with a number of drug-related offences resulting from a police operation on December 18, 2020 in which Sifitani’s residence at Vaini was searched and the various items, the subject of the charges, were seized.

Sifitani had since pleaded guilty to the charges against him together with a number of others and had been sentenced. 

During the trial, Detective Televave gave evidence that on the day in question, at around 12:30pm, he received reliable information from an informer that ice or methamphetamine was being sold from Sifitani residence at Vaini.

Even though this was the first information received from that informant, the detective considered the information to be reliable because it was consistent with the result of three previous searches of those premises, all of which resulted in drugs seizures.

He also identified from previous experience that the accused and another named, Paletili Afu, also lived in Sifitani’s house from time to time. 


Detective Televave decided to execute a search without warrant at the premises, because he considered the nature of the information received was such that police needed to hurry to the premises in case any evidence was sold, destroyed or lost.

At that time Cyclone Yasa was approaching Tonga, so he assembled a team of officers from the drugs enforcement task force, tactical response group and the dog detector unit. 


Seizures

The detecitve witness said that when the officers arrived at that residence, they spoke with Sifitani. He was searched and methamphetamines were found on her.

When police approached the room, in which this accused was found, they could see through a window, which had steel mesh on the outside the accused lying on a bed inside the room. They called out to her numerous times that they were police but the accused refused to open it.

The accused said she was afraid of police officers and at one stage, Detective Televave saw her turning sideways as if she was trying to hide something in her hands, he said.

When she turned around, police kicked the door open. At that point, Detective Televave heard the sound of glass smashing. When police entered the room, a female officer searched the accused and found cash in her top.

The accused was then sat directly outside the open door to the room with a female police officer behind her watching the officers inside the room conducting the search.

The Chief Justice said when asked who normally occupied the room, Detective Televave said that Sifitani had told him that the room belonged to Paletili and the accused. 

At that stage, Paletili had been apprehended outside the house and questioned. The police found empty dealer packs, utensils used for smoking drugs, a large quantity of cash and one pack of suspected methamphetamine the subject of the accused charge.

In addition, when Detective Televave cautioned and then questioned the accused, he asked her if the utensils found in the room and other items described in the search list belonged to her. She said ‘no’. That is to be compared to her subsequent plea of guilty to those charges, he said.

The Chief Justnce also found Paletili's evidence unreliable, as he is currently serving a lengthy sentence for possession of methamphetamines and other drug related offences.

"The fact that the accused spoke with Paletili the day before the trial commenced, and what occurred during his evidence in which she mouthed to him that he was to answer that he owned the utensils, I have come to the view that the accused and Paletili tried to concoct a story to support the accused’s case that while all the other drug paraphernalia in the room belonged to her, which was all for the purpose of dealing with and smoking methamphetamine, the pack of methamphetamine found was planted by police."

In addition, there was no evidence of any motive or opportunity for Detective Finau or any other officers, to have planted the methamphetamines, he said.

"Combined with Detective Televave’s unchallenged evidence that each of the officers involved in the search were themselves searched for any illicit material before the search commenced, leads me to roundly reject the accused’s unfounded allegation of planting."

The Chief Justice said, those findings of fact and observations on the evidence provide a sound basis for inferring that the accused knew of the methamphetamines and had some control over it.

She will be sentenced on October 7.