Results for Police and Crime

While fears are held for the safety of a missing 15 year old Tonga College student, Timote Kata, from Houma, who failed to return from a fishing trip at Te'ekiu on Monday evening, police remain hopeful of finding him alive as a search enters its second day along the Hihifo sand flats and mangrove coast.

Three Tongan Police Constables have now been charged with manslaughter in regards to the death of 20-year-old 'Inoke Finau Vala Pepa, after a fight at Vaini early Friday morning, 16 November.

More than 200 kilograms of cocaine worth an estimated street value of AUD $116 million dollars in Australia, was seized by Tongan authorities on the wreck of the 'JeReVe' yacht that ran aground on a reef off Luatafito Atoll in Vava'u. Police believe it to be one of the largest seizure of narcotics in the South Pacific region.

"Jereve" is the name of a yacht in which a badly decomposed male body was found by divers on November 7, after it ran aground on a reef in Luatafito atoll located 20km from the Vava'u Island Group. Police confirmed the yacht is now a crime scene, is subject to an International Multi-Jurisdictional Law Enforcement operation spanning four countries from the United States, Australia, Cook Islands and Tonga, and including the US Drug Enforcement Agency.

A 34-year-old man of Asian origin died in a road accident on By Pass Road in Halaleva this morning, Tuesday November 6, and a driver has been charged with manslaughter by negligence.

A 28-year-old man from Fasi was found dead in his bedroom yesterday morning, October 31. Police ruled out any suspicious circumstances while awaiting the results of an inquest to confirm the cause of death.

The death of a Ha'apai sea cucumber diver this morning was the third death of a fisherman in Tonga in the last six days. The unidentified man is believed to have suffered from decompression after diving for sea cucumbers in Tungua yesterday.

A 25-year-old man had drowned yesterday, Thursday October 25 after his leg apparently got tangled in a nylon line that he used while diving for sea cucumber, on the northern coast of 'Atata Island.

A 36-year-old woman who was charged with manslaughter by negligence after she allegedly ran over her husband with her vehicle at Kameli, Neiafu, Vava'u, was released on bail last Friday, October 19.