‘Okusitino Penisimani Tatafu (50) was sentenced to seven-years and eight-months imprisonment for possession of 249.74 grams of cocaine seized in Vava'u in 2021.

Lord Chief Justice Whitten KC sentenced the drugs supplier on 21 October at the Supreme Court in Nuku’alofa.

He was found guilty for possession of 249.74 grams of cocaine, after a trial before a judge and jury on 2 September this year.

The Lord Chief Justice said the offending was on 14 November 2021, when Police received information that the defendant was carrying cocaine, which he intended to sell to a person staying at the Puataukanave Hotel in Vava'u.

Members of the Drugs Enforcement Taskforce went to the hotel and set up position in the room in which the informer said the buyer was staying. When the defendant entered the room, he was detained and searched.

The bag of cocaine was found inside a pocket of his tupenu. When he was later interviewed, the defendant chose to remain silent, he said.

During the trial, the defendant gave evidence and said that a couple of days before, he met up with a long-term friend who had travelled from Tongatapu to Vava'u with money to buy cocaine. 

The friend asked the defendant to try and buy cocaine. The defendant said that he had never seen cocaine before but that he might be able to get some from others whom he suspected had it. The next day, the friend gave the defendant $10,000 pa'anga and asked him to go and buy a kilogram of cocaine with it. The defendant put the money in the glovebox of his vehicle.

However, he denied ever trying to buy cocaine with it. He told his friend that he had not been able to find anyone selling cocaine. Later, when the friend told him that “the boss” wanted the money back, the defendant said he returned it.

According to the defendant, the reason he went to the hotel on the day in question was because his friend asked him to take food for a man who had travelled by boat from a small island. The friend called the defendant later with the room number where “the boss” was staying. He instructed the defendant that when he got to the room, he was to knock three times so that the boss would be aware that it was the defendant coming on behalf of the friend.

The defendant also denied having the cocaine on him when he entered the room.

The Lord Chief Justice said inferentially, and as a matter of logic, the defendant insinuated that during the search of his person, the police planted the drugs in his tupenu.

"Such an allegation was never put to any relevant Crown witness. By their verdict, the jury clearly did not accept the defendant's account."

He said the statutory maximum penalty for possession of cocaine, a Class A drug, is a fine of $1 million, life imprisonment or both.

“As the amount here was more than 0.25 grams, the defendant is also deemed to have been supplying it.”

Significant amount of cocaine

The defendant had a previous conviction in 2000 for grievous bodily harm and was sentenced to 12-months imprisonment suspended for three-years. This was his first detected drug offending.

"The significant amount here places the offending at the very top of Zhang band two (less than 250 grams) indicating a starting point between two and nine-years.

“In my view, and based on the evidence at trial, which was evidently accepted by the jury, including the defendant’s own admission to agreeing to help his friend with drug dealing, the defendant’s role and culpability also place the offending at the top of that range."

The Lord Chief Justice sentenced him to seven-years and eight-months (or 92 months) imprisonment. The final 20-months of the sentence was suspended for two-years, on conditions.

This meant Tatafu is serving six-years in prison.

The sentence was then backdated to 2 September when he was detained in police custody and the drugs ordered to be destroyed.