Man charged with importing 2kg of marijuana to Tonga through Fua'amotu airport
Pangi Puloka, 33, was charged in Nuku'alofa with importing and possessing two kilograms of marijuana after a suitcase was abandoned on the carousel at Fua'amotu International Airport during a customs border-security search of a flight from Fiji. A magistrate sent the case to the Nuku'alofa Supreme Court for trial on 24 April 2006 after refusing his no-case submission.
Pangi Puloka, 33, appeared in the Nuku’alofa Magistrate’s Court on 15 March 2006
charged with importing two kilograms of marijuana into Tonga from Fiji.[1]
The police prosecutor said Puloka arrived on an Air Pacific flight from Fiji on
4 February 2006 and left a suitcase containing the marijuana on the inward
carousel at Fua’amotu International Airport.[2]Passengers on the flight were
searched as part of a border security exercise by Tongan customs officers.[2]Lee Degan, the head of Tongan customs, called the seizure a great success for
the Border Security operation, which had been launched two weeks before the
suitcase was found.[2]
Puloka first appeared in court the previous week and pleaded not guilty to two
counts of importation and possession of marijuana.[2]His counsel, Siosifa
Tu’utafaiva, applied for the case to be dismissed on the ground that there was
no case to answer.[2]Police Magistrate Peau Pifeleti held that there was a
case to answer and directed that the case be heard in the Nuku’alofa Supreme
Court on 24 April.[2]The magistrate found that Police Prosecutor Viliami
Tulua had given enough evidence to show that the defendant may have committed
the crime.[2]
The prosecutor said Puloka was on the flight, and that the airline tag on the
abandoned suitcase, addressed from Fiji, resembled the tag on Puloka’s own
luggage.[2]
Case data
Every number and detail the sources state, with the sources that state it.
The 15 March 2006 hearing date is clear, but the source gives no separate date for Puloka's first appearance "last week", and the 4 February 2006 flight date is the police prosecutor's claim.
No Supreme Court outcome, sentence or plea change after the 24 April 2006 trial date was found.
No figure for the street value of the marijuana was given.
The article does not say whether Puloka was held in custody or on bail before the Supreme Court hearing.
Only one publication's account of the case was found; no customs or court statement or second outlet report was located.
The print view garbles the bookshop address on the suitcase tag as "Nuku...alofa", taken to mean Nuku'alofa.
No photo of this event was located; the page carries no article image.
Polotu ‘Aho Halalilo was found guilty in Tonga’s Supreme Court on three counts including possessing 1.14 grams of cannabis, alongside methamphetamine charges. His sentencing was adjourned pending an appeal expected in March 2027.
‘Atunaisa Kali, 50, was convicted on two cannabis-possession counts after police found 508.78 g of cannabis and cannabis branches in his Popua bedroom. Co-accused Mele Vakatapu, 24, was acquitted, and Kali is expected to be sentenced in December.
Rodney Tomasi was acquitted of cannabis possession and of offering a bribe to police officers. Tonga's Supreme Court ruled on July 17, 2019 that search evidence was inadmissible and the bribery charge was unproven.
A 42-year-old teacher at 'Eua High School in Tonga has been charged with cultivating cannabis after police seized 51 plants growing inside and around the school compound on 27 June 2019. He was arrested while watering the plants and was due in the 'Eua Magistrates Court on 3 July.
