Results for Police and Crime

A Special Investigation Task Force of the Tongan Police is investigating an embezzlement network at the Nuku'alofa Branch of the Westpac Bank of Tonga, the Acting Police Commissioner Taniela Faletau said that ten former employees have been charged with multiple counts of embezzlement, the highest number of employees to be charged with crime against one private company in Tonga.

Two men have been arrested and charged in relation to the seizure of five rifles at Veitongo, Tongatapu, on February 2.

Tonga's police have suspended issuing any new firearms licenses as a response to the increasing number of armed hold-up incidents in Tonga, but they believe there are many people in possession of illegal firearms.

The Speaker of the Tonga Legislative Assembly, Lord Lasike has surrendered another passport to the Supreme Court on January 27, after pleading not guilty to a charge of unlawful possession of ammunition.

Four male suspects have been arrested by police in relation to the armed hold-up at Asco Petrol Station on Fatafehi Road, where a 53-year-old male supervisor was shot on his leg on January 6.

Shots fired during an armed robbery at a Nuku'alofa petrol station on Friday night injured a petrol station supervisor in the leg, police have reported.

A Colombian-led crime syndicate is the second international crime group to have set up in Tonga during the past 18 months, in what the Sydney Morning Herald on Saturday, December 17, reported has been a trend for organized criminals to use nations with weak institutions and corruption.

A diver from Tungua who died from decompression on Friday, December 9, was the second fatality this year from the use of prohibited diving equipment. Two Asian men were charged with two counts each of illegal harvesting of sea cucumbers off-season and using illegal equipment, following the incident.

10-year-old boy died on Friday afternoon, November 11 after drowning at an inland lagoon known as Vai Salisali, at Sopu, according to the Tonga Police.