A Tongan man deported from Australia has been sentenced to 12 years' jail over his role in establishing a branch of the Comancheros outlaw motorcycle gang in the Pacific Island nation.
Eneasi Taumoefolau was found guilty last month of participating in an organised criminal group over his moves in 2024 to set up the motorcycle gang, in what the sentencing judge in Tonga described as "a structural assault on the fabric of Tongan society".
Taumoefolau was described as the "president and leader" of the chapter in Tonga and was regularly seen wearing Comanchero vests, riding a bike with the Comanchero label prominently displayed and had a storage unit containing a significant amount of Comanchero uniforms and badges.
Taumoefolau was born in Tonga, but he and his family immigrated to Australia when he was eight years old.
He spent most of his life in Australia in the regional town Victorian town of Robinvale, but was deported from Australia to Tonga in 2022 after a string of drug convictions.
In an exclusive in-prison interview with the ABC earlier this year, Taumoefolau said he attempted to set up a chapter of the Comancheros in the island nation to "piss off" the Australian government for deporting him.
Patches reading "Comancheros Tonga" in police evidence. (Foreign Correspondent: Stephanie March)
In her sentencing remarks, Justice Elisapeti Langi said Taumoefolau's moves in Tonga showed the live threat from "foreign criminal syndicates seeking to use the Pacific nations as transit hubs for organised criminal activities".
"It is no secret that the country is now facing significant problems arising from illegal drug activities, which has drastically increased with the deportation of nationals who may still have established ties with international syndicates abroad, as is apparent in this case,"
she said.
Taumoefolau was charged and convicted under the Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crimes Act, the first time the law has been tested in court.
Taumoefolau is serving a life sentence in Tonga's main prison over separate charges, having been convicted in 2025 of importing more than 2 kilograms of methamphetamine into Tonga from the United States.
The 12-year sentence will be served concurrently with his life sentence.
Taumoefolau often flaunted his gang connections in TikTok posts, labelling himself as the #comancheroboss, living the #comancherolife and even donned a T-shirt with a Comanchero patch.
Taumoefolau's TikTok videos. (Supplied)
"The TikTok thing, I understand it, and it was just me having a dig there. It wasn't nothing else and that's the honest truth," he said in the interview with the ABC earlier this year.
Taumoefolau's leg also sports a large tattoo of the Comancheros club logo, which he said he got after he was deported to Tonga.
The ABC has obtained photos tendered as evidence in the trial that show Taumoefolau being taken by police as they search various locations for gang paraphernalia after his arrest for drug importation.
They show him being taken to a storage unit, rented in the name of his partner, where police discovered "bags of T-shirts with Comanchero logo[s] and signs", and "suitcases containing vests and labels of ranks".
A Comancheros tattoo on Taumoefolau's leg. (Foreign Correspondent: Stephanie March)
Taumoefolau has protested his innocence and has indicated he will appeal against the sentence.
Pacific nations have been grappling with a recent surge in drug smuggling, as cartels increasingly use the vast Pacific as a transit point to the highly lucrative Australia and New Zealand markets.
Earlier this year the Australian Federal Police commissioner said Australia's "insatiable appetite" for meth and cocaine was driving the new routes, with local customers paying some of the highest prices in the world for illicit drugs.
The Australian government recently announced $600 million for a new Pacific scheme designed to tackle the surge of drug smuggling into the region.
And last week the Australian government announced a donation of an undisclosed number of 7.5-metre-long "Bluebottle" drone vessels to Fiji, Tonga's neighbour, to help monitor illegal activity in the oceans.
The vessels use solar, wind and wave power and can remain at sea for up to six months while monitoring suspicious activity.