COURT: The defendant pleaded guilty in the Magistrates’ Court to two counts of trafficking in dangerous drugs. The 1st count charged him on 2 November 2021 in Tin Shui Wai, unlawfully trafficked 27 plastic bags containing 536 grammes of a solid containing 501 grammes of cocaine.
The 2nd charge is also trafficking in dangerous drugs. The particulars are that on 3 November 2021, in a unit in Wah Fu Estate, he trafficked in dangerous drugs, namely, 12 plastic bags containing 162.5 grammes of a solid containing 140.9 grammes of ketamine.
The facts of the case are as follows. On 2 November 2021, at around 9.55 in the evening, police officers were conducting anti-crime vehicle patrol in Tin Shui Wai area. They spotted a suspicious vehicle driven by you. They followed you and finally stopped you between Tin Tan Street and Tin Shui Road. When police officers approached your vehicle, they found that you are on the driver seat holding a transparent plastic bag between your thighs.
Upon search, the transparent plastic bag found to contain 13 resealable plastic bags containing suspected dangerous drugs. Police searched the vehicle and further found one plastic bag containing a number of items on the driver’s seat floor. The items found were one transparent plastic bag containing nine smaller resealable transparent bags containing suspected dangerous drugs. Another transparent plastic bag containing five smaller resealable transparent plastic bags containing suspected dangerous drugs.
You were then arrested for trafficking in dangerous drugs. Under caution, you admitted that you were trafficking in dangerous drugs for money since you owed people money, and your mother was very sick. Also found on your person is some cash, HK$900, a car key and two mobile phones.
Government chemists confirmed that the suspected dangerous drugs found on your person were a total of 310 grammes containing 298 grammes of cocaine, whereas the other two bags found on the driver seat, they are 107 grammes of a solid containing 100 grammes of cocaine and 119 grammes of a solid containing 103 grammes of cocaine respectively.
Subsequently, you were interviewed under caution. You admitted, inter alia, you trafficked in dangerous drugs for quick money. You had borrowed the HK$200,000 from a financial company to pay the medical expenses incurred for treating your mother. You were unemployed. You rented a vehicle in question from a person via Facebook at the rate of HK$5,500 from October 2021 for the purpose of trafficking in dangerous drugs.
You had a mobile phone for trafficking in dangerous drugs, and you said this was the first time you received an order to deliver drugs. You received the drugs from a person unknown to you in Yuen Long on the same day, and you were caught by police before you delivered the drugs. You further told police that you have some other drugs “Perfume” kept in your house.
Pausing here for the moment, what you told the police that this is the first time you received an order to deliver drugs did not stand comfortably with your admission that you have some other drugs kept at home. The total quantity of drugs found on you or in the vehicle is 536 grammes of a solid containing 501 grammes of cocaine.
As a result of what you have told the police in the interview, police searched your premises at Wah Fu Estate on the next day. Inside your wardrobe, police officers found one plastic bag containing one plastic foam box containing 12 plastic resealable transparent bags containing suspected dangerous drugs. Later, it was confirmed that the suspected drugs were in fact 162.5 grammes of a solid containing 140.9 grammes of ketamine.
You were further interviewed under caution again. You admitted, inter alia, the ketamine was received from an unknown person on the street two weeks ago, and you were told the drugs were ‘Perfume’. You knew that ‘Perfume’ was drugs, but you did not know its specific type. After obtaining ketamine, you put them at your house and would deliver it. They were being kept at home because you have not received any order to make the delivery yet.
The estimated value of the seized drugs is for the 1st count, 536 grammes of a powder of cocaine, was $554,000-odd. And if the cocaine is in crack form, it is $936,000-odd. So far as the ketamine found at your home, they were $109,000-odd.
From what you have admitted, it is clear that you have received drugs on two occasions and was about to deliver one of them when you were being caught by police.
You are 26 years old now. You have received up to Form 6 education. And you come from a single parent family, and you are single at the material time, living with your mother. It is very sad to see a person of your age with clear record committed such a serious offence for the first time. It has been said by the Court of Appeal on many occasions, clear record and personal background would not count towards a discount too much in serious drug trafficking cases. I could only say that it is very sad for me to sentence you, such a young man, to prison for a long time. But for such serious offence of trafficking in dangerous drugs, the Court has to send a clear message to the society, so that it not only deters you but also others who are minded to trafficking in dangerous drugs.
In dealing with the two counts of trafficking in dangerous drugs, I adopt a combined approach, that is, I will treat you as if only one charge against you involving both types of drugs. Of the two types of drugs, cocaine is more serious, both in terms of quantity and also potency. So, I will take that as the base drug for my calculation. According to the sentencing guideline, 400 to 600 grammes of cocaine, one is looking at 15 to 20 years. From a pure mathematical point of view, 17½ is probably the right starting point.
The next question is how much is that 17.5 years should be enhanced in view of the significant quantity of ketamine found at your home. I give you credit for telling the officers frankly that you have ketamine at home. However, in this sort of case, house search usually will be conducted. In any way, as I said, I will give you some credit for your frank admission. In the circumstances, I am minded to enhance it by one year. So, the starting point now comes to 18½ years.
I check that figure against the calculation conducted under the three tests as stated in Chan Yuk Leong, and having counter-checked those calculations, I am of the view that 18½ years is the appropriate starting point.
I accept your role as a courier, therefore, the lowest end of culpability. There are no other aggravating factors, so my final starting point is 18½ years. The only mitigating factor in your case is your plea. And as I have said already, I am afraid I can’t give you any discount for your background and being a clear criminal record.
Giving you one-third discount for your plea, the 18½ years comes down to 12 years and 4 months. So the sentence I pass on you is one of 12 years and 4 months on each count, and they are to run concurrently. Totally, it’s 12 years and 4 months.