Four arrested with 640g cannabis at Poutaha lockdown checkpoint
Tonga Police and soldiers arrested four people at a COVID-19 lockdown checkpoint in Poutaha, Tofoa, on 30 March 2020. Officers seized a total of 639.68 grams of cannabis in the vehicle stop and a follow-up house search.
While enforcing the National Lockdown Order, police and His Majesty’s Armed
Forces officers stopped a rental car at the lockdown checkpoint in Poutaha,
Tofoa, on the afternoon of Monday, 30 March 2020, and arrested three men.[1]The three men, all reported to be from Tofoa, were arrested with 128 packs of
cannabis weighing 165.37 grams and described as ready for distribution.[1]Drug utensils were also seized from the stopped car.[1]Following the
checkpoint arrests, the Police Drug Enforcement Taskforce with the Tactical
Response Group and Detector Dog Unit searched the accused’s residence in Tofoa
and arrested a woman there with 474.31 grams of cannabis and cash.[1]All four
accused persons were reported to be in police custody.[1]
Police put the total cannabis seized in the checkpoint operation and house
search at 639.68 grams.[2]
Police said the four were among 81 people arrested since Police Operation
COVID19 began on 28 March 2020, with 41 held for curfew breach and other related
criminal activity.[1]Acting Deputy Commissioner Tevita Vailea said police
would continue to target those who sought to profit from supplying and
distributing illicit drugs during the national lockdown.[1]
One of the three checkpoint arrests produced a Supreme Court sentence: Sosiua Totau, 25, was jailed for two years on 6 November 2020 for possessing 400.37 grams of cannabis found when police searched his Tofoa home.[3]The co-driver at the checkpoint, Likamani Fa’aoso, was sentenced on 30 October 2020 to 16 months’ imprisonment, with the final eight months suspended, for possessing the 165.37 grams found in the vehicle.[4]
Case data
Every number and detail the sources state, with the sources that state it.
The Kaniva Tonga account says the three men stopped at the checkpoint were 'all from Tofoa aged 28 and 23', which does not give three consistent ages; the report therefore does not state individual ages.
The amount of cash seized with the 474.31 grams of cannabis at the Tofoa residence was not stated.
No charges, full identities, or court outcome were reported in the opened sources.
The Poutaha report's 474.31-gram figure for the cannabis found at the Tofoa residence does not match the 400.37 grams in the Supreme Court's account of the same search; the difference is not explained by any opened source.
The Poutaha report places the house search at the residence of the arrested men and reports a woman arrested there, while the Supreme Court account says the home searched belonged to Totau and that he was arrested after admitting the cannabis was his.
Tonga Police arrested a 43-year-old man and a 16-year-old boy after tracing reported cannabis distribution near a school to a home in Ha'ateiho. Officers seized three cannabis plants weighing 2,300 grams, four rounds of ammunition and drug utensils, and both suspects were charged with possession of illicit drugs.
Arrested 2Charged 2Plants destroyed 3Cannabis 2.3 kg
In two raids on a bush allotment at Hauloto on 2 and 6 January 2025, Tonga Police arrested six people. In the first they seized 21 packs of cannabis weighing 8.17 g and five packs of methamphetamine; in the second, two packs of cannabis weighing 1.54 g and 27 packs of methamphetamine.
Tonga Police arrested and charged two men with possessing cannabis and a utensil during a routine road-stop on 6 June 2022. The announcement came three days later in a brief police notice published by Matangi Tonga, which released no weight, place or court details.
Tonga Police arrested three men with cannabis on 13 March 2020 at a plantation in Fua'amotu. The operation targeted drug dealers and suppliers, but the accessible report gives no quantities, identities or court outcome.