Prisoner Motuku Kafalava (25) who is serving a life imprisonment sentence for murder was sentenced for possession of substantial amount of methamphetamine. His 24-year-old co-accused, Latu Veamatahau got a lengthy jail term.

Hon Mr. Justice Cooper sentenced them at the Supreme Court in Nuku'alofa in January 2023.

Kafalava was sentenced to 47-months' imprisonment to be served concurrent to his life sentence. While, Veamatahau was sentenced to 63-months' imprisonment, with no suspension.

This was after, Kafalava pleaded guilty on arraignment to the three counts that he faced on the joint indictment, two counts of possession methamphetamine; 12.09 grams and 0.65 grams and possession utensils.

Veamatahau was convicted after trial on three of the six counts he faced, which was possession of 12.09 grams of methamphetamine, possession utensils and failing to comply with a lawful request.

Dealing

The judge said, on 8 July 2021 the police received information alleging that Mr Veamatahau was supplying drugs, from his car. Officers deployed in two vehicles eventually went to Holonga where Veamatahau's car had been spotted, parked on private property.

The first vehicle on the scene contained officers Vimahi, front passenger and Vaka driving. Both were in a marked police vehicle, wearing standard issue police uniforms, including body armour that had printed on its front and back "Police".

Officer Vaka drove swiftly to block in Veamatahau's car to contain him. At that moment the front passenger door was open, and a man stood at the car's side. Officer Vimahi left his car, moved into position to the front of the target vehicle, shouting out a command to not move as they were police.

The man at the passenger door jumped into the car. Immediately, Veamatahau tried to drive off. Officer Vimahi drew his police issue Glock side arm and shot-out a tyre of Mr Veamatahau's car bringing it to a halt.

Officer Vaka came from his vehicle to detain the driver of the suspect vehicle. He removed him from the driver's seat and brought him to the ground to control him and secured him with handcuffs. As he did this Veamatahau tried to reach into his hoody pocket, in so doing two items fell from it; a $50 bill and a black box that landed close to some plants where Veamatahau was placed on the ground.

Other police units attended. Once both men had been detained then a search took place. It was established that Veamatahau was the driver of the car and Kafalava was the front passenger.

The black box that had fallen from Veamatahau's pocket to the ground turned out to be a glasses' case and was seized and placed on the rear of a police vehicle to be searched and photographed. It, along with all other items seized, were entered into the contemporaneously recorded search list.

The fale where the car was parked was also searched.

Dealer's bags of meth

From the glasses' case, 14 dealer's bags of methamphetamine were discovered. They weighed a total of 12.09 grams.

Recovered from within the car two further dealer bags of methamphetamine were seized from under the front passenger seat and another between the two front seats. Together they weighed a total of 0.65 grams.

A small bottle made or adapted for smoking drugs was seized from the rear far- side passenger door pocket. Two quantities of cash, $55 and a further $120 were also seized.

“Nothing of significance was recovered from Mr Kafalava's person. Inside the car was a machete by the driver's side and a small knife and a hammer under the driver's seat. When the police asked them about the contents of the glasses' case, both Mr Kafalava and Mr Veamatahau denied knowledge of what the items were or who they belonged to.

“Of the two bags of methamphetamine found in the car, Mr Kafalava volunteered that they were "ice", but denied they were his. Mr Veamatahau also denied any knowledge of them.”

Both men were arrested and taken to the police station. Both declined to answer police questions and exercised their right to silence.

On 11 May 2021 at the arraignment hearing, Kafalava pleaded guilty in respect to possession of the drugs recovered from the car and also the drugs in the glasses' case as well as the utensil, the bottle made or adapted as a drugs' pipe.

The judge said at the conclusion of his trial, Veamatahau was convicted in respect of the drugs that were recovered from the glasses' case that fell from his pocket, possession of the bottle adapted or made as a drug's pipe and failure to comply with a lawful request, namely his driving his car in defiance of Officer Vimahi's order that he was not to move.

Kafalava 

“With the prevalence of methamphetamine in the Kingdom of Tonga and the harm it causes and the urgent need to deter and denounce those involved in this trade, when I consider the length of the sentence in the context of the criminality involved, I am quite satisfied that 47-months is in no way excessive,” said the judge.

“For count three, possession utensils, that sentence of four-months I make concurrent to the above sentences. That makes a total of 47-months.”

He is currently a serving prisoner. On 29 October 2021 he and a co-accused were convicted of murdering Fanaafi Misifani.

Kafalava was sentenced to life imprisonment on 5 May 2022.

This sentence must run concurrently to the term of imprisonment imposed for that offence, the judge ordered.

Veamatahau 

For Veamatahau's case, for the offence of possession of 12.09 grams methamphetamine, a starting point of 54-months was set by the judge.

He noted the presence of a machete, knife and hammer in the car.

“But in the light of the acquittal in respect of the count alleging the use of that vehicle for the supply of illicit drugs, it would be inconsistent to suggest the presence of those items were an aggravating factor. I therefore do not.

“The methamphetamine was packaged in 14 individual dealer bags and was plainly intended to be sold on. Mr. Veamatahau was obviously in the business of methamphetamine dealing”, he said.

The judge said the pair appeared to have worked in concert through the trial, at every stage, with Kafalava insisting the drugs were his and they his and had nothing to do with Veamatahau, who continued to deny these offences.

"Having carefully reflected on the fact that when committing the offence of failure to comply with a lawful request, Mr. Veamatahau used the car he was driving as a weapon and drove directly at Officer Vimahi, I am quite sure that a term of imprisonment of 63 months (5 years and 3 months) is in no way excessive for that offence and the offence of possession of the 12.09 grams of methamphetamine."

Kafalava was then sentenced to 47-months' imprisonment to be served concurrent to his life sentence.

Veamatahau got 63 months' imprisonment, with no suspensiom.

All drugs and paraphernalia are to be forfeited and destroyed. All monies seized to be forfeited, ordered the judge.