Deportees from Australia try to form Comancheros gang in Tonga

Tongan police say a Comancheros gang member who has been deported from Australia was planning to set up an outlaw motorcycle gang in the Pacific island nation – an attempt they say was thwarted in a drug bust this month.

Police carried out raids across the main island of Tonga following warnings of increased illegal activity by the gang, arresting 17 people and seizing kilograms of methamphetamine.

Tonga Police Commissioner Shane McLennan said police began the operation against the Comancheros when a “patched” member was deported back to Tonga from Australia in October 2022.

The ABC can reveal that person is 43-year-old Eneasi Taumoefolau, who was among those arrested this month.

Those arrested in the raid included a customs official and a prison officer, and police said it appeared an inmate at the country’s main jail had arranged the importation of the drugs.

In a raid on August 9, police seized a box of 2.6 kilograms of methamphetamine imported from the United States, as well as guns and ammunition.

Tonga’s drug squad also seized 3.5kg of methamphetamine, vehicles, cash and a money counting machine during the raids on August 13 and 14.

Police also confiscated dozens of Comancheros jackets, T-shirts and badges.

Police target Comancheros

Police said two of those arrested were members of the Comanchero gang.

Tongan police said in a statement on Monday that the outlaw motorcycle gang has been growing in strength in Tonga and is involved in illegal activities.

But Commissioner McLennan said the raid was a major blow to its ambitions in the country.

“We are very confident that we can dismantle this gang,” he said.

Commissioner McLennan told the ABC that after Taumoefulao was deported back to Tonga, the suspected outlaw motorcycle gang member resumed his previous “lifestyle” and activities.

He said drugs including methamphetamine had been present in Tonga before Taumoefalau was deported from Australia.

“All the deportation does is make this group active in the kingdom and use the resources that are available,” he said.

Taumoefolau was born in Tonga and came to Australia with his family in 1989 when he was seven or eight years old, according to court records.

He has a serious criminal record dating back to 2008 for a number of drug offences.

In 2009 he was sentenced to three years in prison for supplying a commercial quantity of a prohibited drug and supplying cannabis.

Two years later, he was sentenced to 21 months in prison for intentional injury, threatening to kill and using an unregistered firearm.

In 2014, he was sentenced to five years in prison for trafficking ecstasy, methamphetamine and cannabis, and possessing a prohibited weapon.

Australia ‘has a responsibility’

The arrests come as Pacific island nations grapple with growing drug use and as law enforcement agencies try to stop criminal syndicates from using the region as a transit point for smuggling drugs into Australia and New Zealand.

A recent Lowy Institute report found that organised crime groups from outside the Pacific region play a central role in the region’s drug markets, driving growth in local production and consumption.

“Numerous and high-profile organised crime networks in Australia and New Zealand – including outlaw motorcycle gangs (OMCGs) – have expanded their activities offshore and into the Pacific Ocean,” the 2022 report said.

“Since 2016, there has been a significant increase in the number of OMCG members travelling to the Pacific, with the most common destinations being the Cook Islands and Fiji.”

Some experts say Australia’s policy of deporting criminals with few links to their country of birth is exacerbating drug crime problems in the Pacific.

Transnational crime expert Jose Sousa Santos said the raid in Tonga was a clear example of the proliferation of new criminals in the region.

“We have seen smaller outlaw motorcycle gangs operating in places like Fiji and the Cook Islands. But the Comancheros are definitely a new force in the area and they are here with bigger intentions and plans.”

But he said Australia, New Zealand and the United States were all responsible for such cases because they all had policies of deporting non-citizens convicted of criminal offences.

“It actually lines up perfectly with deportation policies in Australia, New Zealand and the United States,” he said.

“This is because the deportation policy has sent deportees with links to the Comancheros and other motorcycle gangs to Tonga in the Pacific.

“Once they arrive in these countries, they lose their connections, their networks, their job prospects, and they are left to reconnect with their criminal associates, which creates a whole new player in the criminal network.

“If Australia, New Zealand and the United States really want to be active partners and have real influence in the region, then they have to seriously re-examine their policies.”

A recent Lowy Institute report said more than 3,500 Pacific Islanders were deported from Australia, New Zealand and the United States between 2004 and 2020 for reasons including visa overstaying, drink driving, assault, grievous bodily harm, drug trafficking or other crimes.

The Ministry of Interior was contacted for comment.

Source: RNZ