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Gold bar - Source: ONE News -
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Police have found a shipwreck in Tonga after large numbers of
people started turning up at dentists wanting to melt down gold
items.
The ship is a mystery but four men have been charged with removing
items from a wreck and not reporting it.
One of those four is navigator Tuakalau Loufau, who along with
three others, has been charged with finding a shipwreck and taking
items from it.
The police were tipped off about the mystery shipwreck off the main island of Tongatapu, when people started turning up to dental surgeries wanting to melt down what appeared to be gold.
"From last year to this year many people were coming in with it&the end of each side it's like gold there because it's shiny where they cut it," dental surgery assistant Teisi Taimani said.
The gold-like tubes measured up to 12 centimetres.
"When they came in we can't do anything with it. It's too big, we told them we cant do anything," says Taimani.
But when the police heard - they did do something, issuing five search warrants.
"Shipwrecks within the territorial waters are government property and so you're required when you find one to notify authorities and not to remove any items from that wreck," says Tongan Police Commander Chris Kelley.
Kelley says one of the addresses yielded items and objects as well as a quantity of ammunition that the police were very interested in.
And police divers found a wreck fairly close to the coastline but they are not saying where it is - or what the ship is.
Kelley says he does not want to identify the location for obvious reasons.
The gold-like items have been sent offshore to be analysed.
"There is rumour and speculation that it is gold but that has yet to be determined," says Kelley.
It is now up to the Crown to identify the shipwreck in its secret location and the man at the centre of the police investigation is also staying quiet.
But Loufau promises there is a story to be told once the court case against him and his co-accused is over.
